How does Six Sigma translate to IT Program Management?

It's all too common to find opportunities in the market for Six Sigma Black Belts for Manufacturing environments. Oftentimes, an IT-experienced Black Belt would be discounted for such an opportunity. In the experience maturity timeline, it shouldn't matter. The fact that Six Sigma identifies a problem using statistical measures, coupled with the myth that IT problems may be difficult to quantify and statistically measure contributes further to this perception.



The Six Sigma methodology translates very well to IT. The difficulty of use is up front, at the point of applying rigor to problem definition. Since gathering statistics to measure a baseline often entails proportionally significant cost, it is often foregone for a nebulous problem definition that can sometimes even be ambiguous.