Selection and Priorisation of project

themes for wave 6

Six Sigma Roll-Out T-Systems
Hotel Allgu Stern, Sonthofen
31.07./01.08.2008

Content
Background
Proposed process for project theme collection
Proposed logic for priorisation and selection of project
themes

Project selection is key for leveraging

potential of Six Sigma to ensure program
success

In the 4 waves already realized, mixed experiences have been

made regarding project selection
Although good themes have been identified, the following
issues have been identified
Perceived isolated/punctual project approaches without
view for the big picture
Projects not always aligned with corporate strategy and
goals
Time delays in project deployment due to buy-in difficulties
of management and partially not well defined project
themes
In part lack of information exchange of projects working in
the same process areas
The aim now is to develop the project selection further to
improve on the mentioned deficiencies and to assure
alignment of the project portfolio with the strategic targets
To achieve this, the following elements will be detailed:
Project selection process description with responsibility
definition

Content
Background
Proposed process for project theme collection
Proposed logic for priorisation and selection of project
themes

The suggested TSI-specific project selection

process should help to improve the quality of
the portfolio
Project input generation
Project prioritization & selection
Corporate perspective

Prog. Mgmt.

MBB

BB-/ GB-idea capturing

Mgmt. Members

Mgmt. pain-points brainstorm.

Business line perspective (efficiency focus)

Prog. Mgmt.

P&L/Balanc. scorec. analysis

Mgmt. pain-points input

Process perspective
Process Mgr.

Prog. Mgmt

Corp. Quality and NGTS themes

Business line perspective (quality focus)

Prog. Mgmt,
Process M.

Quality KPI analysis

Client feedback analysis

Consolidation in
project database (incl.
alignment
to processes of process model
and input of
key project
data according to defined priorisation criteria)

Week -16 to -10*

* Refers always to the wave start, which would be week 0

Pre-Selection Workshops (in

MC-1
sessions
with participation of
process
Manager).
Result: Prioritized project
list as input
for MC/BQC
approval

Prog. Mgmt.
SU Mgmt.
Project
approval
workshops
(BQCs or
MCs). Important: the
area resp.
should present their
project
suggestions.
Result:
Finally prioritized project
list accord.
to agr. logic

Week -9 to -5*

Prog. Mgmt.

EC approval
of projects

Further
project definition (if necessary) &
communication to the
Black Belts

MBB

Week -4 to -2*

Process comments/explanation
Area
1

Comment

Inputs are generated from a business line as well as process model

and NGTS perspective
This should ensure that we get a comprehensive/full view on the
project needs
To structure the project suggestions, the process model should serve
as a framework. This allows to build project clusters for the project
prioritization. In addition to this, key data regarding benefits of the
project should be documented to serve as base for prioritization
At the same time already at this stage possible interfaces should be
identified
Experience has shown, that a lack of ownership of the project
themes (i.e. a Champion is surprised by a project assigned to him)
leads to difficulties in by-in/changes of project scope
It is very important to avoid this by having a pre-selection of project
themes in which the MC-1 is directly involved. The idea would be to
carry out those pre-selection workshops in the regular meetings of
the MC-1. To do so, it is important to identify per SU
The existing relevant MC-1 groups
The stakeholders within each MC-1 group to ensure their Six
Sigma Awareness
It is also important, that in these sessions the responsible process
managers participate to defend suggestions coming from the
process perspective. This consolidation at an early stage should

Also, in the running of projects a close

interaction between Black Belts and Process
Managers should be maintained
Project realization

Participation
Process
manager

DEFINE
Milestone

Transparency regarding
project scope. Possib.
to influence
focus

Participation
Participation
Participation
Process
Process
Process
manager
manager
manager

MEASURE
Milestone

ANALYSE
Milestone

Transparency regarding
findings &
direction for
improvements

IMPROVE
Milestone

CONTROL
Milestone

Definition of
implementation measures &
responsibility for implementation

Content
Background
Proposed process for project theme collection
Proposed logic for priorisation and selection of project
themes

Project priorization becomes key once that

possible project topics have been captured
through the different channels & consolidated

Idea would be to use a standardized approach regarding

prioritization criteria in pre-selection and final approval
workshops. To do this, the input for those meetings has
already to be delivered in the agreed prioritization
format

Priorisation for wave 6 Six Sigma project

themes will use two dimensions financial
benefit
and() quality impact Prioritisation will be performed
Financial Impact

within building blocks (due to

approval by business line described
before)

- efficiency increase
- revenue growth

Prio 1

High

Besides projects with financial and

quality impact, also
analysis/measurement system
projects are possible. In addition
to this, general qualifying
elements for Six Sigma projects
have to be checked (see next
page)

Overall sanity-check will be

performed after priorisation of
building blocks to have a complete
picture (see later comments
regarding project portfolio)

Projects without quantification

will not be accepted

Prio 2

Medium

Low

Prio 3
Low

Medium

High

Quality Impact (KPI improvement)

- Quantitative increase of one or more of the TOP-KPIs
- Special Bonus for projects two or more building blocks

Additional qualification criteria for Six Sigma

projects
In
addition to the already mentioned basic evaluation criteria there do exist additional preconditions to qualify for Six Sigma projects which should be checked (in order of
importance must-criteria are shown in bold)
No preconceived solution exists
A process with defined inputs and outputs (e.g. Incident Management process)
exists & is run frequently (no yearly events or similar)
The project can be implemented within approximately 6 months
Six-Sigma Roadmap can be applied

To understand variations
To control variations
And therefore, to eliminate defects

The process generates defects (customer complains, re-work)/shows variations in

performance (fulfillment of Service Level Agreements)
As guideline: attractive Six Sigma projects should have

a
a
a
a

cost improvement effect of > 200 k OR

revenue increase effect of > 1.000 k OR
reduction of capital employed of > 400 k OR
significant impact on client or employee satisfaction

Overall project portfolio should show a

balanced structure of company, building block
an MC-focused topics

Structure/main elements of the

consolidation/prioritization matrix
Project quality improvement
contains all criteria/fields to
evaluate the qualitative
improvement targeted with the
project

Project key data

contains all basic
information of the
project theme to
position it into
context (i.e. process
allocation, driving
building block etc.).

Project financial evaluation

contains all criteria/fields to
evaluate the financial
contribution/benefit of the
project

Description of project key data fields

Champion and Business Owner should be fixed as
soon as possible/ during Pre-Selection to ensure a
smooth project start (at least for approved projects)

Basic information for the project

positioning. Apart from the project topic
and description of the burning
platform/the project objective, this also
includes the process allocation
starting with the overarching C2C and
than going into more detail

To be able to
allocate
responsibility as
well as the
organizational
reach, the driving
(1) and the
affected (can be
multiple) units are
given here

Project idea status can serve to capture

the level of maturity. Everything going
into the EC obviously would have an
approved, but during the idea
development this could have following
stages:
* Project idea
* Rejected
* Approved

Description of financial evaluation data fields

Overall project evaluation during selection phase is done
on the base of the annualized estimated benefit without
considering costs). This information is entered in the
column year 0. In later stages of the project, the
estimated evaluation of project costs and benefits can be
entered to do a NPV-estimation. Comments field gives
the possibility to additionally capture
comments/explanations regarding the indicated financial
benefits

Yearly estimated project costs as far as

they can be predicted at project start.
Typically this includes the personal costs
(Black Belt & Green Belt), material and
travel cost. In later project stages estimated
costs for coming years can be entered

Target maturity grade captures the initially

intended maturity grade for this project (see
financial guidelines)

Estimation regarding financial impact. Column Type

describes the category of financial benefit. We
differentiate
a) efficiency increase/cost reduction
b) Revenue increase
c) Working capital reduction (in this case only the
interest rate effect is considered as benefit)

Description of qualitative evaluation data fields

Affected Top-KPI gives the possibility to
enter/select one of the 12 Top-KPIs as well as
sub-area the project is contributing to

If project result cannot be linked to one

of the Top-KPIs, but still the project is
important from the Building Block
perspective (due to special
requirements i.e. CMMI ratings etc.)
the mainly affected KPI can be given
here

The level of improvement is given by the column KPIimprovement by (x%). To make it comparable from project
to project, improvement should be given in %. If decision is
taken to make the matrix prioritization based on a
High/Medium/Low-categorization, this value would be
translated in one of those improvement levels.

Description of Six Sigma Projects Steckbrief

Comment: This is a reduced first page of the project

workbook which is commonly used to describe/present
briefly the projects in project selection workshops
outside of EC (BQC/MC etc.)

Description of Six Sigma projects short EC

format

Benefits of this approach

Continuous improvement in project selection

Provide a structure that will allow better alignment with

the corporate strategy

Improved clustering of projects to address the big

picture

Increase results focus (financial and/or quality impact)

Back-up

12 TOP-KPIs

12 TOP-KPIs (contin.)