Project Management and Six Sigma – When to Use One or the Other or Both

Lowering costs. Streamlining operations. Cutting waste. Finding efficiencies. Meeting deadlines. Improving communication. Achieving goals. Creating better products and services.

All of these are commendable goals for an organization, which is why the use of Six Sigma and project management remain extremely popular among private businesses, nonprofit organizations and government agencies.

In practice, many organizations apply either Six Sigma or project management in their operations. It doesn’t have to be an either/or approach.

Business leaders are beginning to understand that project management is a great complement for Six Sigma.

Different Approaches

Six Sigma and project management each come at business challenges from somewhat different angles. The mainstay of Six Sigma is DMAIC, an acronym for define, measure, analyze, improve and control. It’s a sturdy, time-tested method for successfully improving existing processes.

DMAIC allows for the identification and quantification of a problem. Analytical tools are used to find the root cause of the problem, and later a solution is identified and implemented. The effects of the solution are then measured to determine its success. If it meets or exceeds expectations, practitioners will continue to control and monitor the improved process to ensure the problem does not arise again or create another issue.

Conversely, project management contains numerous techniques that can be used in creating, developing and completing a project. The focus typically is on project initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control and closing. The idea is to achieve the desired results while completing a project on time and within its budget.

Project management also incorporates important elements such as executive buy-in and support, as well as communication between different departments during a project’s lifecycle.

Working Together

In short, Six Sigma excels at identifying and fixing the root cause of a specific problem or excessive variation and then working to ensure it does not reoccur. Project management excels at assuring success of the project itself by controlling potential problems on a project-by-project basis.

Six Sigma and project management are very different, but they can work together cohesively. Since Six Sigma is a project it can be accomplished more efficiently and effectively utilizing project management techniques.

Incorporating a strong project manager into a Six Sigma project is one way to foster success because Six Sigma projects fail if there is a lack of executive support or inadequate financing or resources. Project management directly addresses those issues.

This combination can work with projects implementing Six Sigma across any industry, from new software rollouts to improvements on a manufacturing floor and in any process environment including manufacturing, transactional or administrative.

Projects have a beginning and an end, and the work of project management is over when the project is complete. Six Sigma projects at their conclusion have a continuous and ongoing monitoring component to maintain improvements.

The PMBOK^® Guide and Six Sigma

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^® Guide), maintained by the Project Management Institute, is one useful tool for those implementing Six Sigma.

The PMBOK^® Guide – Seventh Edition is a compilation of all the best practices, guidelines, terminologies and processes that are accepted by the project management community as standards. It’s a guide on how to best implement project management. It also can prove useful when executing a Six Sigma project. Many of the best practices for specific project areas apply to Six Sigma including project time and costs.

Additionally, the PMBOK^® Guide offers guidance on navigating the political climate of an office and cutting through the barriers such as poor processes, culture and/or lack of leadership that often exist in large enterprises. It offers direction for the bigger picture project issues not necessarily within the purview of Six Sigma, which often is focused on a very limited time frame with a small team. Along with project management training and certification, the PMBOK^® Guide offers solid examples of the best approaches to planning, executing and controlling a project.

Project Manager vs. Black Belt

In project management, the person in charge is the project manager. For Six Sigma, it generally is a Black Belt or Master Black Belt.

When it comes to executing projects, these two types of leaders have a different focus.

Project managers bring the tools of the project management methodology to the table that will create a project that runs on time and within budget, that has buy-in from upper management and aligns with overall company goals.

Black Belts, on the other hand, typically are more focused on the nuts and bolts of troubleshooting a specific problem and finding a solution, as quickly and efficiently as possible. Placed into the role of essentially being a project manager, a Black Belt might use software designed for project management duties such as tracking daily goals and the date of certain deliverables. Project management training is a perfect complement to a Black Belts’ Six Sigma tool kit.

Neither concept is the perfect answer in every scenario. Much depends on the individuals involved, and the roles a company puts them in. Generally speaking, project management and Six Sigma are focused on different things, but that doesn’t mean they do not work well together when used in the right way.

PMBOK is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.