By Zack SwinneyAs seen in page 1, a project charter is the first step in the Six Sigma methodology. It takes place in the Define step of DMAIC, and the charter can make or break a successful project. It can make it by specifying necessary resources and boundaries that will in turn ensure success; it can break it by reducing team focus, effectiveness and motivation. On this page, we'll continue our discussion of the project charter, and provide templates for your use.
Process Importance:
Here's where we get to the meat of the matter. Every business operates by processes. So what's the process that you're improving and why is it important enough to spend time improving. For instance, if you want to improve the account opening process, you could identify how your process compares to competition, how it's the lifeline of your company, how the customer experience is suffering...you get the picture. Next we get to the exact problems.
Process Problem:
Once we have a high level view of why the process is important to the business, we talk about how it's broken. For instance, there's no online data checking, customers can't instantly open accounts which leads to frustration, redundant processes lead to human error, no validation of customer typed information leads to mis-shipments of collateral, etc.
Process Start/Stop Points:
We can't solve world hunger or boil the ocean (if anyone knows of any other sayings, please send them to me for inclusion), so how do we make sure we're biting off something we can chew 100 times before swallowing? Bound the project with a start and stop point: From the time a customer calls until the time the complaint is handled and customer is informed of the decision. Then, when the inevitable issue arises confusing the group's mission, you can ask -- 'Does that action/issue occur between our process stop and start points?' If the answer is no, table it and get the team focused on the task at hand.
Project Goals:
What results do you anticipate from this project? Will cycle time be reduced 50%? Will defects be eliminated or at least reduced 90%? Will variable costs be identified and capped to a certain dollar figure per transaction? Set challenging but realistic goals.
Process Measurements:
What are the measures that you'll use to determine effectiveness of the project. Will it be $/item or cycle time in days, or call queue time in seconds? Specify all you think may be necessary, but make sure that they are within the scope (process start/stop points) of your project.
Team Members:
List the following roles and who will be filling the roles:
Sponsor
Project Leader
Subject Matter Experts -- it's sometimes a useful reference to list the subject matter in parentheses next to each name, especially if the team is cross functional and employees don't know each other.
Project Time-Frame:
We have already identified the project start and (estimated) stop points. What are the major milestones (e.g. presentations, phases of the Six Sigma methodology, etc.) between those dates? Mentors and MBBs are very helpful in creating this part of the charter because they've done projects and have an idea for how long each step requires.
Downloadable Templates
The following project charter templates are for immediate download and use. There are two versions. The Adobe Acrobat version allows you to print and input your specific project information by hand. The Microsoft PowerPoint version allows you to input your specific project information and print.
Adobe Acrobat (.PDF)
Microsoft PowerPoint (.PPT)
First Page > Project Charter Introduction
