How Much Process?

So I gave to presentations this week on different topics. Monday I was the presenter at the Kansas City Chapter of PMI. My presentation was on Scrum. Today I talked about 6 Sigma on the PMI IT & Telecom Special Interest Group's monthly webinar.

One of the principles behind Scrum (and really all agile approaches) is to put personal interactions before process. Don't get bogged down in the process, just have enough to keep things moving forward. Six Sigma assumes a more rigid set of processes.

So where's the balance? That of course depends. Today someone asked me if you can apply six sigma if you don't have any well-defined processes. My response was no, you have to get some processes in place first before six sigma could help you.

But you can get to focused on process. Lean talks about eliminating waste. To much process can introduce waste. Do you have to produce specific documentation that doesn't add value? That's what you want to get rid of.

The trick is figuring out what is just enough. Map out your process. Look at all the inputs and outputs. Then decide what isn't adding value to your product. That's what you should get rid of.