Page 85 - Six Sigma Demystified

66 Six SigMa DemystifieD

by the team during the DMAIC cycle. The key tasks for developing the project
charter can be summarized as follows:

• Define the problem statement and the business need for doing the
project.
• Define the project scope using preliminary data (which usually must be
collected and analyzed).
• Develop deliverables, the useful output of the project, stated in financial
terms accepted by finance and management as legitimate estimates.
• Develop an initial schedule for the project milestones.
• Define the project stakeholders, and assemble a team.

• Conduct a project kickoff meeting. In this meeting, the team agrees to the
project scope, its deliverables, and the schedule.

• Map the process at its top level.
• Secure the approval of the updated project charter from the project
sponsor.

Project charters provide a means to control and manage Six Sigma projects.
They serve as a contract between the project sponsor and the project team.
Unlike legal contracts, they are “living documents” in the sense that they are
updated as new information is discovered in the DMAIC process. In this regard,
they are used to actively manage and continuously focus the project over its
life.
Through its sponsorship by the appropriate level of management, a project
charter helps the organization avoid projects that (1) deal with unimportant

issues, (2) overlap or conflict with other project objectives, (3) target soon-to-
be-obsolete processes or products, (4) have poorly defined or overwhelming
scope, (5) study symptoms instead of root causes, (6) provide poorly defined
deliverables, and (7) lack management authority and responsibility.
An example project charter is shown in Figure 4.1. Each element of the
project charter is described in detail. The example used was introduced by the
author in the Six Sigma Handbook, third edition (Pyzdek and Keller, McGraw-
Hill, 2009). Readers with both texts may notice some slight enhancements in
materials in this book that reflect revisions to the charter resulting from
measure- stage data. This is intentional, to further illustrate use of the charter as
a living document and communication tool for project stakeholders.