First step of starting six sigma projects is defining project statement to create charter. And the smartest way for designing project statement is SMART methodology.

The acronym SMART describes an effective project statement that helps six sigma team members to be focus upon their concept. According to SMART an effective project statement should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely. Smart helps project statement to focus on qualities that make it an effective and result oriented for the project. It also ensures that statement should cover goal of the project with the key objectives under realistic span.

Lets analyse and understand why SMART Project Statement is must?

Specific:
Project statement should be Specific.
Here specific means that the goal of the project needs to define and addressed core challenges of company by compress way so it can be expressed in one or two sentence statement. It should be in very precise manner. For an example we should not write “increase client satisfaction level at company’, it should be “reduce client complaints at 4 division of company’. which show specific towards goal and area of improvement.

Measurable:
Project statement should be Measurable.

Measurable goals can yield an observable difference between the final and initial condition. It need to be defined and authenticated with data which could be evaluated to measure the outcome of the process. Goal statement needs to be growth oriented and able to get measured in units. It mostly based upon analysis done on data gathered in past.

Achievable:
Project statement should be Achievable.
Project statement should not be unrealistic or hypothetical in terms of goal achievement. It should be clear, realistic and achievable in predefine time frame. Lets take an example of project statement like “increasing customer loyalty in one Month.” Now here, span of one month is too short for the task like increasing loyalty of consumer. It may drag project in to failure mode due to unrealistic project statement for achievement of goals.

Relevant:
Project statement should be Relevant.
We cannot consider un-relevant issues and problems in to project statement. It should be relevant to the business problem and challenges with key improvement strategy. It helps project statement to focus upon scope of improvement with relevant subjects. Thinking behind relevant project statement is to address specific issue that could be important to resolve business problems to ensure relevant utility for the project.

Timely:
Project statement should be Timely.
You need to define time line so you can do reverse engineering of efforts.“Timely” indicates that project should be define in a specific span to perform all tasks. Task can be designed base upon detailed analysis and study. Task are allow to change base upon project environment however it could not go beyond pre define boundaries of realistic time constraint. Timely project also allows six sigma team members to organize project according to scheduled completion dates.

So, keep in mind about these simply SMART factors before designing project statement for your six sigma or BPI charter. These will help to define key result area through project chartered. Ideal project statement need to be focused on business challenge which includes realistic approach and rational time frame base upon process requirements.

Success,
Vision Raval