01 · Purpose
Why and when to use it
Why?
It keeps useful analysis connected to decisions, delivery and ownership, rather than allowing the project to become an open-ended study.
When?
Establish proportionate routines in Define and continue them through project closure and transfer to the process owner.
Who takes part? The leader coordinates delivery, the sponsor enables decisions and resources, and the team and process owner fulfil agreed responsibilities.
02 · Application
How to apply it
Start with: The charter, scope, stakeholder needs, deliverables, available resources and decision authority.
- Agree the mandate and define deliverables and acceptance criteria.
- Plan activities, dependencies, owners, resources and milestones.
- Establish reporting, decision and change routines appropriate to project size.
- Track progress, costs, risks and unresolved issues.
- Review the evidence at phase transitions and adapt the plan.
- Confirm acceptance, handover, outstanding actions and benefit ownership at closure.
03 · Example
A warehouse dispatch project
Original illustrative example. All quantities, targets, roles and timings below are fictional teaching assumptions, not findings from a real project.
| Management question | Illustrative arrangement |
|---|---|
| What must be delivered? | Validated baseline, cause evidence, tested changes and an operational control arrangement. |
| Who decides? | Sponsor approves scope and spending changes; process owner accepts operational handover. |
| How is progress reviewed? | Weekly team review of completed work, next actions and blockers. |
| What triggers escalation? | A dependency threatens the pilot date or the agreed resource limit. |
04 · Interpretation
What the result tells you
A project can complete scheduled activities yet fail its improvement goal. Review both delivery progress and the evidence that the process improved.
Completion check: An integrated delivery plan and review routine that support the DMAIC outcome.
05 · Judgement
Mistakes and limitations
Common mistakes
- Reporting task completion as proof of process improvement.
- Applying the same heavy meeting structure to every project.
- Closing the project before the process owner accepts control responsibilities.
Limits of the tool
Good coordination cannot compensate for poor measurements or an unsupported causal explanation. Use management routines to enable investigation, not to force the team through phase gates despite missing evidence.
07 · Reading
Sources and further reading
Toolset backbone: Six Sigma+Lean Toolset: Mindset for Successful Implementation of Improvement Projects, second edition, edited by Stephan Lunau, with Renata Meran, Alexander John, Olin Roenpage and Christian Staudter (Springer, 2013). This reference identifies the toolset; the book text was not available for a chapter-level comparison in this development pass. The explanations, application sequence and fictional examples here are original LeanTrainingLab teaching material. Linked readings provide background; they do not prescribe every example or target.