Category Archives: 4th Sigma

4th Sigma: Decompose Now And Projects Won’t Go Bad Later!

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Chris Niccolls

Long time readers of this Blog are familiar with my “4th Sigma” series on building simpler, easy to implement process improvement. I’ve argued against training for (and using) all of the tools that Six Sigma offers. It’s not that the … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Project Management Office | Tagged 4th Sigma, Improve, PMO, Procurement, Project Management, Projects | 1 Comment

Genius PMO: Tracking A Project’s Financial Benefit Is Pure Genius

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

At the Wednesday (11/30) meeting of the NYC chapter of the Project Management Institute, Marc Resch gave a compelling presentation on the importance of cash flow models. In a very short time, Mr. Resch covered a lot of important territory. … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Decision Making, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Learning and Development, Project Management Office, Unique Ideas | Tagged 4th Sigma, PMO, Project Management, Projects, Track, transform | 2 Comments

4th Sigma: Napoleon’s Rabbits & Identifying Best Practices

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Don’t you hate it when an overblown public debate is started by the questionable use of a single phrase or word (probably half of the debates in Washington these days)? However, there are times when just one-word matters. In, “The … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Decision Making, Improvement, Continuous or Not | Tagged 4th Sigma, Efficiency, Improve, Measure, Metrics, Satisfaction, transform, Voice of the Client | Leave a comment

4th Sigma: A Tale of Efficiency… Why Bigger Is Better!

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

This Blog is another chapter in our ongoing collection of tips, tools and observations to drive simple process improvement…The 4th Sigma. Today, we’re going to talk about growth. A healthy firm is always trying to grow. Growth may be needed … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Decision Making, Delivering Services, Unique Ideas | Tagged Build vs. Buy, Efficiency, Improve, Measure | Leave a comment

4th Sigma: How To Listen When The Client Is Silent

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

If you’ve been following this Blog, you know that we have been discussing variability: how the products and services we provide can be better or worse at any given moment. We then created a tool for identifying and quantifying the … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Decision Making, Delivering Services, Improvement | Tagged 4th Sigma, complaints, Improve, Measure, Metrics, Voice of the Client | Leave a comment

4th Sigma: P Charts Made Simple

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

It’s been a while since we spent any time on the 4th Sigma, so let’s take a few minutes today and talk about using the 4th Sigma process to address some problems in your operation. If you’re a regular reader, … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Delivering Services, Improvement, Continuous or Not | Tagged 4th Sigma, Projects, Reporting, Six Sigma, Track, transform | 1 Comment

4th Sigma: Project Charters, Part 3 – Building Consensus

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

A Project Charter is a document that describes a project, names the people who will perform the project, what their roles will be and the name of the project sponsor (the individual that requested the project). Any book on Six … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Decision Making, Expectations and Rewards, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Learning and Development, Self Sorting, Unique Ideas | Tagged 4th Sigma, change, Improve, Meetings, Projects, Quality, Satisfaction, Six Sigma, tips, transform | Leave a comment

4th Sigma: Project Charters, Part 2 – A Step by Step Guide

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

When you’re ready to start a project you need to create a Project Charter. In our last Blog we went over the consequences of not having a charter. Today, we’re going to cover the steps you need to take to … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Decision Making, Improvement, Continuous or Not | Tagged 4th Sigma, corporations, Improve, Measure, Projects, Quality, Six Sigma, transform | Leave a comment

4th Sigma: Project Charters, Part 1 – Do We Need Charters?

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

If you were to take everything in the very large Six Sigma toolkit and try to identify the top ten most important tools, the Project Charter is near the top. A charter is just a very good description of what you … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Decision Making, Improvement, Continuous or Not | Tagged 4th Sigma, Improve, Projects, Quality, Satisfaction, Six Sigma, transform | Leave a comment

The 4th Sigma: The Paradox of Customer Service

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

You’ve probably heard about it elsewhere, and if you haven’t in these Blogs we’ve discussed how the Six Sigma framework defines waste as any activity that doesn’t contribute value. For example, in “Is Quality Control A Waste of Time?“ we … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Continuous or Not, Delivering Services, Improvement | Tagged change, corporations, Customer Service, Improve, Measure, Metrics, Projects, Quality, Quantify, Satisfaction, transform | 6 Comments