Certainly we have all heard it before:  Six Sigma and the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL^®) are perfectly compatible and complimentary, right?  Well, yes, but unfortunately many organizations with a successful Six Sigma program have trouble adopting the ITIL® framework.  In turn, many using the ITIL^® framework for Information Technology Service Management often struggle to apply the tools and methodologies of Six Sigma.  This is unfortunate.  The framework and tools are there, available for the asking.  Nothing new, and no exotic techniques are necessary.  To be successful, it just takes a little time to understand how the power of Six Sigma tools may be exploited to enhance an IT Service Management implementation and ensure on-going support of an ITIL^®-based process framework. 

Information technology professionals have clearly demonstrated an interest in using established best practices and quality methodologies to improve their IT service offerings.  In an independent study of IT process owners (Musto, 2007), a significant percentage of the survey respondents acknowledged the value of using Six Sigma to assist in ITIL^®-based IT Service Management programs.  While it is heartening to know the industry recognizes the potential benefits of using these quality methodologies in concert, many organizations clearly need to understand how these disciplines may be used effectively to enhance service management. 

Six Sigma is probably best known as a high performance approach to identifying and achieving sustainable, breakthrough improvement.  While Six Sigma does focus on the reduction of waste, re-work and errors in the improvement of a process and service, it offers so much more.  The incredibly powerful tools and techniques of Six Sigma have a much broader application beyond breakthrough process improvement.  And, many of the most useful tools are the simpler of those available.  In the hands of a trained process owner, or one working under the guidance and counsel of an expert, Six Sigma may be employed first to improve and then to ensure on-going support of a process implementation.  This ensures that all the hard work that went into architecting a process will not be wasted on a process that will be buried in a diagram gathering dust on someone’s shelf.  Processes are meant to be alive and Six Sigma provides the means to ensure they thrive.

Six Sigma’s structured, measurable, and methodical approach to improvement helps focus resources and effort on the essential elements of a process at any stage of definition, development, improvement, and management.

• Variation.  Six Sigma addresses the importance of understanding the diverse ways variation is manifested in a process.  The process owner must first understand their process as part of a system and then recognize the difference between controllable and uncontrollable variation.  Six Sigma ensures the identified improvement initiatives will be appropriate given the nature of the process under examination.  Thus a process owner will not be wasting time trying to fix something that cannot be influenced.  Such a discipline has direct impact on Service Level Management, Incident, Problem, Availability and Capacity Management.
  
  
• Measurement.  Another aspect of variation is that which is inherent in the system used for measuring.  The ability to measure is essential for improvement.  The ability to recognize if the measurement system is useable for an improvement project is essential.  Without the discipline of Six Sigma, it is not possible to know if, or what portion of, the variation is the result of the process or the measurement system itself.  
  
  
• Data.  With its emphasis on data analysis and metrics, Six Sigma may be used to evaluate the existing capability of a service.  Careful analysis of existing capability makes certain an internal information technology provider does not commit to an unachievable or unsustainable service level.  The implications for a Service Level Agreement, and the reputation and credibility of a service organization, are clearly evident.
  
  
• Customer.  Six Sigma is customer-focused.  While true for many quality initiatives, Six Sigma quantifies the customer’s definition of quality in a useable structure that provides the capability to monitor for continual improvement.  This has direct bearing on the Service Desk, Incident and Problem Management as well as Capacity, Availability and Financial Management.  
  
  
• Control.  A key tenant of Six Sigma is the control plan.  Properly designed, the control plan will provide leading (early-warning) sensitivity to process variation.  This means that the process owner will, in many cases, be able to detect potential problems before major process failures.  Such advance warning affords the process owner time to take corrective action before a service level is breached or the improvement achieved to date is undermined.  Further, a well-designed control plan would have anticipated potential variation and would have included an intervention plan in anticipation of the potential change in the process.  This proactive stance, which expedites corrective action, has obvious benefits for Incident, Problem, Availability, and Capacity Management.
  
  
• Scalability.  Six Sigma is scalable to the environment and applicable to the services of any IT organization.  Although Six Sigma originated in the manufacturing world, it is equally applicable in the service arena.  Deming said it best:  “All industries, manufacturing and service, are subject to the same principles of management.” (Deming, 2000).

Six Sigma initiatives require judicious application of the right tools at the right point in the Six Sigma process.  But when used as part of a process improvement effort focused on the ITIL® framework, Six Sigma can significantly improve the likelihood of sustainable change in the organization.  Six Sigma and ITIL^® are not mutually exclusive, but rather, may be used together to enhance an organizations efforts to realize IT Service Management.  Increasing interest in the subject matter among those looking to establish solid and sustainable processes supporting their IT services suggests a more explicit treatment of the subject is needed.  Those with the skills, knowledge and insight to leverage the existing toolset are ideally positioned to fill that need.

About the Author:

Patrick Musto is a senior management consultant with Plexent and has over 25 years of experience in business management and process consulting.  In addition to consulting, Patrick is an author, trainer, facilitator, courseware developer, Six Sigma belt and ITIL® Manager.  Based in Minneapolis, Patrick may be contacted at pmusto@plexent.com.

Citations:
Deming, W. Edwards (2000). Out of the Crisis.  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Musto, Patrick L. (2007). Continuous Improvement Client Survey.  Unpublished research.

 

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