IT Organizations Go into Six Sigma

Over at CIO.com, Tracy Mayor shares insights on how Six Sigma has improved IT operations lately, thereby satisfying customers.

According to the article, Six Sigma not only helps CIOs come up with an objective and measure technology investments, but it also help them establish a judgment-free common language between IT and other project stakeholders within the company.

“We’ve cut so far into IT in the past couple of years that we’re starting to see some quality problems,” says Val Sribar, a Meta Group senior vice president. “If you’re smart about where you apply [Six Sigma], if you apply it to your core disciplines, it makes a lot of sense right now.”

Read more…

And what has inspired CIOs even more is that with Six Sigma, quality is back in the corporate world in a big way.

Filed under: IT, Six Sigma

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Six Sigma in the Training and Developing Future IT Workforce

Over at Training Zone, Paul Lambert, managing consultant at PA Consulting Group, shares his insights on some of the key factors shaping the workforce, the implications for how a workforce learns and how learning and development (L&D) can address these issues.

Toward the end of the Q&A, the topic was how to make the shift to developing a capable IT workforce, and Mr Lambert offers four steps. On the fourth step, which is picking the right learning approaches, this is what he said:

A shift towards building ‘strategic capability’ typically involves a greater focus on learning that is more embedded in business activity. For instance, the energy firm shifted towards learning that included development of six sigma skills (to enable IT process improvement), accreditation of knowledge and skills for a new service delivery model (ITIL), development of professional networks inside and outside the firm and support for IT career development.

Read the entire Q&A.

Filed under: IT, ITIL, Productivity, Six Sigma, Training

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Innovation of the Week: Sitemasher’s Platforms

Sitemasher, a Vancouver-based start-up company received the inaugural Blue Sky Award, which recognizes leading innovation developed on the Microsoft-based platform.

Mediacaster Magazine reports:

Established in 2007, Sitemasher is a SaaS-based platform for building, managing, and optimizing sophisticated websites.

Phil Calvin, chief technical officer, began developing Sitemasher in 2005. He was intent on transcending traditional website building platforms and Web content management system (CMS) solutions by providing an integrated, search-engine friendly platform to address the entire website lifecycle.

Continue reading…

Filed under: General, IT, Innovation Update, Internet, Software/Technology

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IT Data for Six Sigma

Dealing with data is part and parcel of any operation. But how to treat the data in your hands is another question. That is the usual dilemma that CIOs and senior IT team leaders face.

What’s ironic even, is that CIOs and senior IT team leaders often find themselves handling a lot of data, yet they seldom treat these information as something that can help them optimize their organizations effectively. That is because they don’t have the tools that help them sift through and find the relevant data. This is where Six Sigma comes in.

Thus, in the recent Six Sigma in IT conference, this question was asked: “What should we be measuring for our IT organization?”

To know the answers, read IT Measures That Matter.

Source:
Information Week

*Photo from Stock.Xchng

Filed under: Data, Data Analysis, Data Quality, IT, Metrics, Six Sigma, Software/Technology

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The SixSig Roundup

It’s time again to go ’round the blogosphere and read about Six Sigma and other quality management methodologies.

Learn from the following links and leave your message below.

Buffalolog, Six Sigma Too “Dilbert” For The Buffalo News – this is another reaction to my earlier post on slowing down on Six Sigma.

Planview, Notes from ITIL Foundation Training – IT management, like any other field, definitely needs a good management system. ITIL is one approach to IT management, and in the post, Terry Doerscher shares his insights while on training for ITIL foundation-level certification. Six Sigma or not, I agree with Terry when he says that there should be mechanisms for assessment, optimization, and management of IT services.

Bloggeron, is Following a Systematic Approach to Six Sigma Project Implementations – Tony Jacowski offers a good review for Six Sigma practitioners who’ve been doing it through the years.

Statistical Thinking to Improve Quality, Resin Example of Hoerl-Snee Strategy (Part B) – Yes, the improvement process is iterative: gather data, identify special cause, gather more data, notice differences, and then conduct brainstorming session. The process may use Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) or DMAIC steps.

The Sixth Sigma, Kaizen Plan – Kaizen is creating noise these days. Go Kaizen? Yeah, why not. I like the organization part of it. Any strategy that calls for a never-ending contonuous improvement is always a good thing.

Filed under: DMAIC, Deployment, IT, ITIL, Kaizen, Lean Six Sigma, Six Sigma

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Using Six Sigma for Employee Promotion

I have written quite a number of posts about the use of Six Sigma in human resource. Some of the posts touched on fast-tracking recruitment process, others on providing training for employees. Not one touched on promotion.

If Six Sigma can improve recruitment and training processes, I believe it can also be used for evaluating employees for leveling up.

Cummins is actually doing it. An article on Information Week narrates how the company will be using Six Sigma to determine of IT employees can be managers.

CIO Gail Farnsley shares how she will apply process improvement method, particularly Six Sigma, to identify and develop the manufacturer’s IT management talent. Right now, she’s looking into the following:

• starting with the VOC survey, asking business-unit heads about the strengths and weaknesses of the IT division
• ranking and prioritizing the qualities of a future IT leader
• looking into IT management candidates’ experience in non-IT roles
• tracking how many of them actually make it to leadership positions

Read more…Source:
InformationWeek.com, a Six Sigma Zone featured link

*Photo from MorgueFile

Filed under: CIO, Deployment, Human Resource, IT, Software/Technology

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