A clear understanding of Customer and User requirements is essential to successfully develop, design, build, test and produce components and systems for Customer Programs. Failure to thoroughly understand Customer Requirements can result in costly design and tooling changes, schedule delays and ultimately, Customer dissatisfaction. Statistics across all industries indicate that 25-50% of all projects that fail to meet their imperatives are due to poor requirements and lack of user involvement.
A team was formed to develop and apply Six Sigma Green Belt methods and tools to address project requirements management. The hypothesis of this study was that a substantial opportunity exists to increase project efficiency while providing what the Customer wants by following a standardized work practice for managing requirements throughout the life of a project.
The team evaluated four projects for analysis with the objective of assessing and correcting root causes of project problems due to requirements issues. Using the methodology of Six Sigma, the team utilized lessons learned to determine “Impact Issues,” relative to requirements management. These issues were then addressed by the addition of improvements to the Product Development Process.
The paper will present how the process can lead to the development of requirements management tools and methodologies that can be used to improve Project performance, cost and timing while delivering quality products to the Customer.