9.5 Analyze Tollgate Review

Recall that at the end of each DMAIC phase, you will participate in a review to determine whether the team has made proper progress to move towards the next phase and complete all activities. The assessment for the Analyze phase varies according to the project particulars. There is no rigid sequence of steps that every team must follow and no tools that every team must use. You can test your hypotheses, for instance, using inferential methods or process knowledge, depending on the case. You and your team need to use logic and learning about the project and context to determine which steps to follow and select appropriate tools. That said, here is a list of general deliverables:

• You identify the primary root causes.

• You prioritize root causes.

• Where possible, you support the root cause hypothesis with statistical data.

• Where possible, you confirm the variable relationship with statistical analysis.

Similar to the previous tollgate, executives will assess whether the benefits are worth continuing the project and whether they justify the time and resources. Besides, the team, process owner, and project champion and executives can also discuss whether it is necessary to change the focus of the project vis-à-vis the organization’s needs and strategies.