The discussions of methodologies and uses cases for ontology
remind me of the Six Sigma approach, which was a hot topic 20
years ago and is still continuing. (01)
Following are some excerpts from an article I came across.
In reading them, replace the term "Six Sigma" by "Enterprise
Ontology". (02)
John
____________________________________________________________________ (03)
Source: http://www.brcommunity.com/b585.php (04)
Six Sigma for Service
Is it Sufficient? (05)
by Kathy A. Long (06)
There is nothing wrong with the concept of near-perfect products and
services for customers. The purpose of this column is to explore the
method/framework/discipline/approach called "Six Sigma" applied to
Service Sector organizations and organizations primarily providing
services, in contrast to organizations primarily providing products... (07)
What Makes Six Sigma Seem Successful? (08)
The author of Six Sigma: The Breakthrough Management Strategy suggests
that the following elements create a successful implementation of Six
Sigma:[5] (09)
1. Highly-visible, top-down management commitment to the initiative;
2. A measurement system (metrics) to track progress;
3. Internal and External Benchmarking of the organization's products,
services, and processes;
4. Stretch goals to focus people on changing the process by which the
work gets done, rather than "tweaking" the existing process;
5. Educating all levels of the organization;
6. Success stories to demonstrate how the approach is applied and the
results;
7. Champions and Black Belts to promote the initiatives and to provide
the necessary planning, teaching, coaching, and consulting at all
levels of the organization. (010)
There's actually nothing wrong with anything this author states. The
problem is that none of it is part of the Six Sigma approach. These are
all the things that need to happen outside of the concepts of Six Sigma,
and it's inappropriate to attribute an organization's success with
process improvement to Six Sigma under these circumstances. That
success is due to the implementation of process change supported by all
the elements mentioned above, not due to anything that Six Sigma
specifically brings to the project... (011)
There are a multitude of process management concepts that suggest that
it is important for an approach to include things like process
architectures and alignment of the organization and the expectations of
other stakeholders in addition to the customer. Incorporating executive
compensation as part of the motivation is a tremendous critical success
factor. There is a saying that "we get what we pay for." It is
apparent that, if executives are motivated and the organization invests
literally millions of dollars into training its people, the likelihood
that something in an organization will change is dramatically increased.
However, none of that happens if an organization is implementing just
a Six Sigma framework... (012)
In the final analysis, Six Sigma does seem to bring a discipline to
those that have none. The basic approach of Six Sigma — define,
measure, analyze, improve, and control — should be applied to every
process improvement project. The larger question is, "Is it
sufficient?" The conclusion is "no" — not in service organizations. (013)
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