Analyze the Current State for opportunities and gaps!

Welcome everyone to the third stop of your DMAIC journey, the Anaylze Phase. Now that we have the Current State of the process we need to figure out what would make that process better. In other words, what are the root causes to the problems we are experiencing? The focus of this Phase is to NOT find solutions but to ensure we know what the root problems are. If we try to solution without knowing the root problems we are at risk of not improving the process successfully! Put your detective hat on and let's jump in.

Let's make a list of opportunities and identify gaps from the Current State

Why develop a Current State of the process if you aren't going to gather information from resources where there are 'pain points' of the process? Get the team to collectively, or individually, go through the Current State and make comments as to what areas cause them issues. Remeber, be as spcific as possible.

1. Review the Current State with resources who actually do the work,
2. Create a Gap Analysis spreadsheet, and
3. Validate the final Gap Analysis list with the team and Sponsor.

Categorize the opportunities/gaps

Now that you have a list of all the areas which require improvement you need to categorize them. This is done because potential solutions may fix more than one gap:

1. Run through the list and ensure each opportunity/gap has the following information:

• "In Scope" or "Out of Scope" - Can this gap be reasonably fixed by this project or will it require another project?
• General Theme or Category - Does it apply to a certain document? To a certain point of the process? Etc.
  
   

Allign the Project Charter and the Gantt

Are we still on target? Does out Charter still support expectations for the project?

1. Review and make changes to the Gantt for timelines,
2. Ensure Project Charter still supports the project, and
3. Validate the Gap Anlysis.

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