Page 192 - The Six Sigma Project Planner

design alternative quickly can become unwieldy. In dealing with the complexity, it
helps to have a rigorous process for deciding on an alternative.

Structured Decision-Making
The first step is to identify the goal of the design activity. For example, let’s say you’re
the owner of the product development process for a company that sells software to help
individuals manage their personal finances. The product, let’s call it DollarWise, is
dominant in its market and your company is well respected by its customers and by
competitors, in large part because of this product’s reputation. The business is
profitable and the leadership naturally wants to maintain this pleasant set of
circumstances and to build on it for the future. The organization has committed itself to
a strategy of keeping DollarWise the leader in its market segment so it can capitalize on
its reputation by launching additional new products directed toward other financially
oriented customer groups, such as small businesses. They have determined that product
development is a core process for deploying this strategy.

The process owner or business process executive has control of the budget for product
development, including the resources to upgrade the existing product. Although it is
still considered the best personal financial software available, DollarWise is getting a
little long in the tooth and the competition has steadily closed the technical gap. You
believe that a major product upgrade is necessary and want to focus your resources on
those things that matter most to customers. Thus, your goal is:
Goal: Determine where to focus product upgrade resources
Through a variety of “listening posts” (e.g., personal contact, focus groups, user
laboratories, Internet forums, trade show interviews, conference hospitality suites,
surveys, letters, technical support feedback, etc.), you have determined that customers
make comments like the following:

• Can I link a DollarWise total to a report in my word processor?
• I have a high-speed connection and I’d like to be able to download big databases
of stock information to analyze with DollarWise.
• I like shortcut keys so I don’t have to always click around in menus.
• I only have a 56K connection and DollarWise is slow on it.
• I use the Internet to pay bills through my bank. I’d like to do this using
DollarWise instead of going to my bank’s Web site.
• I want an interactive tutorial to help me get started.

• I want printed documentation.
• I want the installation to be simple.
• I want the user interface to be intuitive.

• I want to be able to download and reconcile my bank statements.

175