8.3 Measuring Your Project: The Big Picture

Moving from the Define phase to the Measure phase, you and your team will continue to take a deep dive into the selected process. But now, you will understand the process more fully through data. This phase aims not to solve the problem but understand where you are. You achieve that goal by exploring the problem's output (the Ys, or dependent variables). You can also begin to list potential causes of the problem (the Xs, or independent variables).

During the Measure phase, you will examine the process in detail and gather information about the current situation. An important goal here for the project team is to ascertain the validity of the data you use. Besides, you need to select one or more metrics in the process (Ys) that are important for the project, develop a fine-grained map of your process, produce necessary measurements, and record the results to establish the current capability and improvement process baseline.

During the Define phase, you and your team started identifying the relevant CTQ(s). You now need to understand the definition, measurement system, and current capability of each CTQ objectively. Your mission is to understand each CTQ and its behavior to improve it in subsequent phases. The crucial point is that you need something to compare your improved process to so you know whether you and your team succeeded.

You and your team will produce the following deliverables in this phase:

• Detailed process map

• Operational definition of the CTQ(s)

• Data collection plan for the CTQ(s)

• Measurement analysis of the CTQ(s)

• Baseline data collection for each CTQ

• Process capability examination for each CTQ