E-Learning: Gaining Business Value Through Six Sigma

At DTCC, even though the work to complete this map was being done by people who used the process every day, the functional deployment map alone took almost four meetings (eight hours) to complete. The exercise of developing this map made it very clear to everyone involved that those working with e-learning development had a different view on what was supposed to be occurring and when it was supposed to be happening. When the map was finally completed, it displayed all of the steps in the e-learning development process as they were really occurring. It illustrated where each step was performed and who was involved. The completed map clearly illustrated for us that our process contained a series of checks and rechecks that virtually guaranteed rework. So at this point, we had validated that the problem was with our process. We also identified the steps in our process that were potentially causing the problems.

The functional deployment map is a tool that allows its user to see all of the steps in a process and thus be in a position to analyze each of the steps.

Quantitative Analysis
Once the functional deployment map is complete, the next type of process analysis that should be completed is a qualitative analysis. This tool requires that every step in the e-learning process (as identified in the functional deployment map) be evaluated and classified as customer-value-added, operational-value-added, not-customer-value-added or not-operational-value-added. Customer-value-added is defined as an activity that the customer recognizes as valuable, that changes the product toward something that the customer expects or that is done right the first time. Operational-value-added activities are activities that are required by contract or other laws and regulations, are done right the first time or are required to sustain the workplace ability to perform customer-value-added activities. All of the tasks that are classified as non-value-added are then categorized based on whether they are easy to implement, fast to implement, cheap to implement, within the team’s control and easily reversible. The non-value-added activities (NVA) that meet all of these conditions are identified as quick wins. See Figure 4.