SOA, BPM, Six Sigma and IT Projects...what is the scope here?

The past three weeks I had a hectic training schedule. First I was in a SOA Architecture Boot camp, week later I was in a course ware on Lean Management from MIT looking at ways to accelerate process efficiency. The thing that struck me in both the courses were the involvement of Six Sigma Black belts in show casing process improvement methodologies. I had the opportunity to look at real life case studies and ask questions about them. In an economy looking at recession, it was no wonder to see all this BPM initiatives in companies looking at ways to "Cut Costs".

As expected BPM was the entry point for IT projects where some of them ended up as SOA initiatives and black belts were the enablers for those BPM projects. Looking through my spyglass (plugin for my blog) I find many Q's popping out in the landscape. There was a general distrust of the six sigma methodologies and its efficiency among the participants.

One of the points that was raised in the seminar was, the black belts definitely bring in the horsepower to do the DMA part of the DMAIC six sigma process, however when it comes to the Improve and Control piece of the process they seem to falter. They face obstacles and road blocks all the way after the DMA cycle to implement their recommendations. When I asked the black belts about the buy in from IT groups on their recommendations, all of them unanimously mentioned IT as their biggest bottle neck. For that matter one Master Black Belt told me that in his organization some of the IT managers have expressly prohibited his team members attending the BPM meetings without his permission.

One other participant put forth an interesting observation, he said "American companies in the 90's have invested a lot on the BPM initiatives and while they have gained a lot of incremental improvements only some of them has got the biggest bang for the buck and it is so late now for them to change course on this.

So after this three weeks of SOA, BP, Six Sigma and Lean... I come out with more questions than answers. Common sense tells us there is no one size fits all, at the same time companies are implementing solutions based on these tool sets which they feel will solve all of their problems. The challenge ahead is how to improve efficiency of the existing processes and at the same time create an environment that fosters innovation (this is another whole topic for a later blog). Looking through my spyglass I found one place where there was something interesting. U.S Army has embarked upon a ambitious plan to transform its business process and they have taken best of two disciplines Lean Management and Six Sigma and have attempted to chart a new course. Check it out at http://www.army.mil/ArmyBTKC/focus/cpi/tools3.htm.

Looks like Lean can partner at where six sigma falters and make it a success. The process map and variance analysis that was rigorously done by the six sigma black belts can now be made to real processes that will bring the change by using Lean Management principles. I feel IT can be a great partner in doing this phase of the BPM initiative. By involving IT in a lean initiative we can create an environment in BPM Projects where, IT groups feels that they are an important enabler of the initiative rather than just a trench warriors executing everybody's wishes. The Improve and Control part of the DMAIC can now be done through a partnership with Business, IT and the Black Belts using Lean as the tool.