6 Sigma Technology Group Announces State of the Art Business Process Management Methodology

Chantilly, VA (PRWEB) January 27, 2005

6 Sigma Technology Group (6STG), the innovative firm combining excellence in the disciplines of Six Sigma and application development, today announced the official release of their highly engineered methodology for implementation of Business Process Management solutions.

Business process management (BPM) platforms are growing in popularity at an unprecedented rate. BPM has the promise of helping companies make the difficult transition to process excellence and a process oriented view of the organization. However, BPM is only a technology and if implemented wrong will provide little if any benefit. Even worse, it can give organizations the false impression that they are implementing a process excellence program when in fact, all they are doing is building software. As experts in both Six Sigma and software development using BPM tools, 6 Sigma Technology Group has developed Process Oriented Design ™. This process centric approach to software development is geared toward optimal use of business process management platforms.

PODTM is a new breed of software development lifecycle. As efficiency and effectiveness become more important in the software industry and with custom software implementations, more and more focus is being placed upon the process of software development. Hence, we see the popularity of standards such as CMMi and new software development methods such as extreme programming and rational being devised and touted by their followers.

“Process Oriented Design is an advanced software development approach that, rather than focusing upon the elements of the software itself, focuses upon the processes being automated by the software. They way we see it, all software in the business world automates some set of processes. Doesn’t it make sense that one should use proven process engineering techniques when building that software? We have spent nearly two years to define and test the methodology so that it incorporates the right amount of process engineering rigor, but is not overwhelming for software developers not trained in Six Sigma process engineering” Said Greg Sieber, President of 6 Sigma Technology Group.

It then follows suit that the processes being automated by the software will eventually come under such scrutiny. Face it, no matter what software development methodology chosen, if emphasis upon Quality of the operating processes being automated is not implemented, the resulting software products will not satisfy the needs of the user community.

PODTM requires software professionals to account for processes first and foremost from concept through management of a new software system. PODTM requires software engineers to learn techniques such as SIPOC, State Diagramming, CTQ, VOC, Process Mapping, COPQ, QFD, Process Variable Definition, value stream mapping, and cycle time analysis. Further, PODTM makes use of proprietary techniques developed by 6STG such as Key Decision Point Definition and Process Portfolio Definition. The PODTM methodology drives process excellence at the procedural and strategic levels through incorporation of Six Sigma techniques and by creating the foundational building blocks of Process Portfolio ManagementTM.

PODTM is particularly useful when developing new software systems using Business Process Management platforms. BPM platforms are very powerful and can be the technological enabler to making organizational management via a process view a reality. Along with such power comes the potential for disaster. If the software team is not trained in "real" process excellence techniques such as Six Sigma and they are working in a traditional software development method such as Rational, disaster is likely. Traditional software development methods follow some version of: define scope; gather requirements; design; build; test; and repair (unspoken). These steps are implemented in some type of iterative spiral or waterfall method. This is simply not acceptable for those interested in process excellence and can lead to serious problems for those implementing BPM.

Besides the obvious problems of not properly engineering processes nor implementing the techniques and tools for continual improvement, using these methods for BPM implementation can deceive management into thinking that because BPM is in use, the organization is implementing process excellence. When in reality, software developers have simply taken the silo centric requirements gathered from the user community and automated them using BPM. Alternatively, PODTM ensures that those implementing BPM use a method that drives proper definition of end-to-end processes as well as the techniques for effective engineering and continual improvement of these processes.

About 6 Sigma Technology Group

Headquartered in Chantilly VA, 6 Sigma Technology Group (6STG), http://www.6sigmatech.com is a unique firm with the rare combination of expertise in TQM/Lean Six Sigma and modern applications development techniques. 6STG provides a combination of Six Sigma/management consulting services and application development and integration services. The firm combines these competencies to provide best-of-breed processes and the information systems that enable these processes for various clients. 6STG focuses creating process centric solutions for non-manufacturing processes in both manufacturing and non-manufacturing industries. The 6STG Team is comprised of experts in Six Sigma, TQM, strategy, operations management, and software engineering. As a firm leading the charge into Six Sigma for non-manufacturing processes, 6STG has developed innovative techniques such as Process Portfolio ManagementTM (PPM), Process Oriented DesignTM (POD), and the Six Sigma for Soft Processes S3PTM Methodology focused upon enhancing the science of Six Sigma. For more information, please visit http://www.6sigmatech.com or contact sales@6sigmatech.com.

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