Pre-Decision Criteria for Successful Information Technology Project Implementation: Six Sigma Practices and Approach

Abstract

Despite the praises of Six Sigma to increase productivity, profitability and customer satisfaction; less emphasis and less discussion is mentioned on the obstacles implementation of six sigma execution within the IT industry. Most importantly, everyone knows Six Sigma solves issues and problems; at the same time drives efficiency and effectiveness to organizations' products, services and processes. There are numerous factors contributing to successful implementation of Six Sigma; deficiency in any of these factors can ultimately lead to deployment failure which further result in depletion of company resources, team synergy and team motivation in the long run. In addition, it is vital to instill the top management mentality that Six Sigma is an effort-driven practice includes a control phase, which gets to the root of the problem and keeps continuous improvement moving forward. As such, in order to value Six Sigma, prior preliminary analysis of project selection for Six Sigma implementation is critical ensuring organizational commitment of time and resources (human, talent and financial) is deemed utilized wisely and unlocking the benefits of Six Sigma practices over the long term. This paper aims to discuss a set of pre-decision criteria for successful Six Sigma implementation for IT projects. Thus, it is crucial for organization not to rush into Six Sigma practices and approach prior having firm and sound understanding of what successful Six Sigma implementation requires.