Six Sigma Project Planning

Project plan development involves setting up timelines and milestones to achieve as the project processes. It acts as the basis on which resource requirements are computed. Various project planning tools are used for the purpose like Gantt charts, CPM/PERT charts, project schedules, etc.

Project Risk Analysis is conducted during project planning to work out feasibility of the project as well develop counter-measures to mitigate risks involved and their impact. Usually aspects of project which are analyzed are safety, reliability, serviceability, etc. Risk analysis involves identification and mitigation of risks. Various analysis tools are used like

• SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) Matrix – It involves a scan of the internal and external environment to classify internal as strengths (S) or weaknesses (W), and those external to the firm can be classified as opportunities (O) or threats (T).
• Risk Priority Number – Risk Priority Number (RPN) is a measure risk by assigning the RPN values range from 1 (absolute best) to 1000 (absolute worst) to identify critical failure modes with project.
• Failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) – It identifies failures in a project by studying the impact of all possible failures which are prioritized according to severity, frequency and identification.

Risk mitigation involves continuous review of risk identification and mitigation plans as during project progress environmental changes and new risk are identified if any step changes mid-way thus, a risk management system is embedded during project planning.