Six Sigma in the Technical Writer’s World

What is Six Sigma?

- A system to continuously build quality into your processes and products
- A fact based, data-driven improvement system
- A company-wide commitment to quality

What Six Sigma is not:

- A magic wand to correct the ills of a company
- Yet another quality directive without substance
- A tool that can be handed to the workers and forgotten

In order for it to work in whatever form you use, Six Sigma must be used by everyone in the
company/division/section or it will not work. The managers have to be as dedicated to the
process, if not more so, than the everyday worker.

What is a Six Sigma project?

- DMAIC: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control
- DMAIC fixes existing processes
- DMAIC example: Getting information from a SME—

. You already have a process, but you know there are sometimes problems with the
process. So you would use a DMAIC project to help the process become better.

- DMADV: Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify
- DMADV creates new processes
- DMADV example: Asking approval to come to the STC Conference—

. You may not have a process in place to ask your manager to approve and pay for your
trip to the STC conference. In this case, you would use a DMADV project to create the
process and ensure it would work.

Terms and Definitions

- customer: The person who will benefit from the project
- sigma: Standard deviation of a population
- CTQ (Critical to Quality): - A transformation of the customer’s needs into a measurable requirement for the process

Define

- When you scope a project; you find the problem you want to solve
- DMAIC example: Getting information from a SME—

. Define the process and look for the problems within it. Create a business case for your
project and pitch it to management

- DMADV example: Asking approval to come to the STC Conference—
Define the goal you want to reach. (create a foolproof plan to get approval to come to the
conference)

. Create a business case for your project and pitch it to management.
Define your team
. Develop a plan to create the process needed.

Measure

- You gather initial information to further refine the problem
- DMAIC example: Getting information from a SME—

.Create measurements to quantify aspects of the process. For example, accuracy of the
information, quantity you get from the SME as compared to other places, time spent
following up, and so on. The point is to have quantifiable (measurable) information

- DMADV example: Asking approval to come to the STC Conference—
. Gather information from your customers (yourself and your manager-types in the office)
what they would want out of the process.
. Create measurements for the information you gather
. Prioritize your customers’ needs

Analyze

- You look at your empirical data in a variety of ways to find possible solutions
- You examine several solutions to decide on the best one
- Using numbers, you will acquire management acceptance of the selected solution
- DMAIC example: Getting information from a SME—

. You might decide that one problem to be solved in the process is how the SME gives you
the information—the paper airplane over the cube wall just isn’t working. So that is what
you are going to try to fix.
- DMADV example: Asking approval to come to the STC Conference—

. You would identify what would be required to meet the customer’s CTQs
. Create several solutions to the problem.
. You would then look at each solution, and mathematically (there are lots of tools to help
with the decision-making process) make a decision.
. You also check the risks associated with the plan and create ways to mitigate them.

Tools take the personalities out of the decision-making process. It may mean the solution you
want is not the best for the problem. While your manager may have bought in to the project in Define (highly recommended) you can now show them what is going on and that what you are trying to accomplish is not just coming from you—numbers talk to managers.

Improve

- You change the process to eliminate the problem
- DMAIC example: Getting information from a SME—
- Remember the paper airplane over the cube wall just isn’t working.

. So you come up with some other solutions, like email, face-to-face meetings, and so on.
. You then look at each solution, and mathematically (there are lots of tools to help with
the decision-making process) make a decision.
. You then do a couple of test runs to see if your change makes a difference—take
measurements, and compare them against the original ones. Let’s say you find that the
face-to-face meetings give you the best results.

Control

- You monitor the process to ensure that you have selected the best solution
- DMAIC example: Getting information from a SME—
. You make the face-to-face meetings part of the information-gathering process
. You create ways to fool-proof the plan (write up your process, teach the SMEs what
you’re doing, and so on)
. You continue to take measurements to be sure that the solution continues to work.

Design

-You design a solution to the problem based on the empirical data you have gathered
- DMADV example: Asking approval to come to the STC Conference—
. You create the detailed plan of how you are going to accomplish the solution decided on
in Analyze
. You revisit the risks associated with the plan, make sure you have mitigated the ones
identified earlier, and not created new ones. (script not allow for male managers, script
not adaptable for others to use, etc.)
. You create a verification plan to test the process and make sure it works before you use it
(perhaps to hand the script to a coworker with a different manager and have them walk through
it)

Verify

- You run a test of the design to ensure it is the best solution to the problem
- DMADV example: Asking approval to come to the STC Conference—
. You use the verification plan and measure the effectiveness of it in several quantifiable
ways (got expected result, time taken to learn script, adaptability of script, and so on)
. You evaluate the performance of the design based on these measures.
. You implement the design and hand the process to whoever will tasked with its upkeep

Case Studies

Case 1: Background

· Needed to start using Six Sigma
· No previous contact with customers
· Decided that designing a survey to get feedback form the customers was a good place to
start
· Used DMADV because it was brand new

Highlights

· The scope was scaled back to include just the creation of the survey to fit the timeframe
in which we had to work
· Talked to the customers of the project (tech writers) and found out what they wanted to
know
· Drew up a survey that would meet those needs

Results

· Selecting a team is as important as the project itself
· Users wanted paper manuals for complicated configuration tasks
· In-house terminology was not the same as the users’ terminology, creating complications
and confusion

Case 2: Background

· New functions in the manual overlapped older functions
· Opportunity to make manual easier to use
· Used DMAIC because it was reworking an old manual

Highlights

· Talked to customers about the manual as it stands
· Incorporated the new information with the old, and reworked the manual’s organization
· Gave the new manual to the customers to see what they thought
· Measured their response

Results

· There was much about the manual that they did not want to see changed
· What was changed helped the manual to be even better than before
· Even when the customer may not see a process as broken, it can still be improved

Case 3: Background

· Acquired product that had no formal manuals
· Current product’s documentation style was not consistent with the rest of the business
· Decided to create new styles to bring this product up to speed with the rest of the
business’s products
· Used DMADV because we were starting from scratch

Highlights

· A chance to talk with customers—get their input
· Put together new templates and a game plan based on their responses
· Currently in process of finding out whether we met their immediate needs or not

Results

· Users wanted the step-by-step first and foremost
· When we get pushback from others to write something else, we have the customer’s word
help state our case
· We predicted that once the need for basic procedures was met, the users would ask for
tips, hints, and other niceties

Case 4: Background

· New product needed a help system
· Wanted to look at single-sourcing as a way to save time
· Used Six Sigma to choose a product that would work for us
· Used DMADV because it was a new process we were designing

Highlights

· Determined what we (and other customers) needed
· Tested a couple of systems out, compared them to our criteria
· Took our findings to management, and with their input, made a decision

Results

· Working towards single-sourcing allowed us to show savings in time and money to our
managers
· The solution we were leaning towards was not the best once we heard management’s
input

Conclusions

Six Sigma…
· can assist in making design decisions
· can ensure the documentation is satisfying the customer
· can show managers where the documentation is improving
· may take time up front to set up and get the data, but can save time and money overall


Lori Beard and Erin Welch, Technical Communicators