Teams Glossary
Affinity diagram: A tool that helps organize language data into related groupings.
Agenda: A plan for a meeting.
Brainstorming: A method for generating lots of ideas quickly.
Cause-and-effect diagram: A tool used to identify and organize possible causes of a problem in a structured format. It is sometimes called a fishbone diagram because it looks like the skeleton of a fish.
Charter: A written document that describes the work of the team.
Checklist: A list of action items, steps, or elements needed for a task. Each item is checked off as it is completed.
Checksheet: A simple form used to collect data by making tally marks to indicate the number of times something occurs. Checksheets help standardize the data that is collected and the data collection process.
Coach: A person with expertise in team dynamics, data analysis, and improvement methods who teaches and supports Team Leaders, Team Members, and Sponsors.
Common cause: A cause that occurs in all situations and contributes only a small amount to the observed variation. Processes with only common cause variation are stable and predictable.
Concentration diagram: A data collection form where you tally the number of times something occurs directly on a picture of the object about which you are collecting data, allowing you to quickly see where problems cluster.
Consensus: A search for the best decision based on exploring and incorporating everyone’s thinking into the final decision. Everyone understands, can explain, and will support the decision.
Control chart: A time plot that includes a centerline and upper and lower control limits. The control limits are statistically calculated from the data in the plot. These limits allow you to quickly detect specific changes in a process. A control chart also helps quantify the current capability of a process and identify when special events interrupt usual operations.
Cost-benefit analysis: An evaluation of the financial impact of proposed solutions or actions.
Customer: A person or an organization paying money in exchange for goods or services. (See also internal customer.)
Customer needs: Non-technical statements of what customers expect of a product or service.
Customer requirements: Customer needs translated into technical requirements for the product or service. Sometimes these are called CTQs (critical to quality characteristics of the product or service).
Cycle time analysis: The study of how much time it takes for work to flow through a process. You can identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies by looking at the work time and the wait time in each process step.
Data: Clearly defined measurements of characteristics. They are most useful when collected to monitor or improve a process.
Defect: Any measurable event that does not meet a customer specification.
Designed experiments: The systematic and simultaneous testing of multiple process inputs or variables to study their effect on the output.
DMAIC: The improvement method used by many organizations deploying Six Sigma. DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control.
Effort/Impact Grid: A matrix that compares ideas or options against the level of impact the option will have and the amount of effort it will require.
FMEA: Failure Modes and Effects Analysis helps identify and prioritize potential failures of a product, process, or service.
Flowchart: See process map.
Force field analysis: A visual listing of forces driving or obstructing change.
Frequency plot: A graphic tool that shows the shape or distribution of the data by showing how often different values occur. This makes it easier to see what is happening with the data and to identify some types of process problems.
Gage R&R: An investigation of the repeatability and reproducibility of the measurement system in order to determine the sources and amount of measurement variation.
Gantt chart: A chart of a project schedule that shows the order and duration of tasks.
Ground rules: Team norms or standards of behavior to which members agree to adhere.
Groupthink: A group mindset that occurs when teams do not critically examine ideas, when members keep reservations about proposals private, and when alternative viewpoints are discouraged or not explored.
Internal customer: A person or organizational unit that uses the output of a process.
Joint review meetings: Meetings between the Sponsor, Team Leader, Coach, and Team Members to review progress; support the use of logic, data, and an improvement method; and overcome barriers.
Multivote: A way of conducting a vote with minimal discussion to identify the most important or most popular items from a list.
Nominal group technique (NGT): A structured method using minimal discussion for teams to generate ideas and narrow down a list of items.
Non-value-added step: A step in a process that is not essential from a customer’s perspective; i.e., the customer would be unwilling to pay for the step.
Operational definition: A precise description that tells how to get a value for the characteristic you are trying to measure. Often a cut-off for what is to be considered defective is included.
Output: The result of a process. Examples include products, services, and reports.
Pareto chart: A graphic tool that helps break a big problem down into its parts and identify which parts are most important.
Parking lot (issues board): A list of tangential topics or issues that arise in a meeting that should be dealt with later.
PDCA: The Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle is an approach to improvement that emphasizes planning a set of actions, implementing the actions, checking the data to assess both the results and the plan, and acting on the data.
Pilot test: A small-scale test of a proposed solution.
Planning grid: A table that summarizes the tasks, resources, and deadlines for a project.
Prioritization matrix (decision matrix): A tool used to compare multiple solution ideas against key criteria and each other to help objectively evaluate alternatives.
Process capability: The ability of a process to consistently produce products or services that meet specifications. Process sigma is one measure of process capability.
Process management chart: A summary of a process management plan. It often includes a process map, and descriptions of what is measured, how those measures are displayed, and what actions to take if the measures are not satisfactory.
Process management plan: A well-defined plan of action for monitoring processes “end-to-end” and taking action if measures become unacceptable.
Process map: A chart that depicts process steps in chronological order to help identify problems that contribute to waste and defects. Also called flowcharts.
Process owner: An individual who is responsible for seeing that processes continue to meet requirements.
Process sigma: A measure of process performance compared to customer specifications.
Root cause: The deep underlying cause of a problem in a process or system.
Sampling: Measuring a selected subset of all the available units instead of measuring every unit.
Scatter plot: A graphic tool that shows the relationship between two variables. It is sometimes referred to as a scatter diagram.
Sigma: A measure of process performance compared to customer specifications.
SIPOC: A SIPOC (Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers) diagram is a high-level process map that helps teams understand the key elements of the process and define its boundaries.
Six Sigma: Most often this term refers to both the measure of process variation relative to customer specifications and to a method for reducing that variation. You may see Six Sigma written as 6 Sigma or 6.
Special cause: A cause that occurs sporadically and contributes a relatively large amount to the observed variation.
Specification: Expectations or requirements for a process output or deliverable––a product or service.
Sponsor: A manager who identifies needed improvements, and reviews and supports a team’s work.
Stakeholder: People or groups who are interested in or will be affected by the team’s work.
Storyboard: A highly visual format used for both documenting and communicating the highlights of a team’s work that uses a descriptive series of pictures and graphs accompanied by text.
Stratification: Dividing a group of data into subgroups to see whether the data differs among subgroups. This helps identify the factors that have the most impact on the problem.
Tampering: Over-responding to individual common cause data points as if they signified special causes––asking for explanations or making changes based on the individual data point. Tampering can increase the variation in a process by 41 percent.
Team: A group of people working together to achieve a common purpose for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.
Team Leader: A person who orchestrates team activities, maintains team records, leads improvement efforts, and serves as a communication link with the rest of the organization.
Time plot (run chart): A graph of data in chronological order that helps identify changes that occur over time.
Tollgate review: A review at particular milestones, often at the end of steps or phases of a team’s work.
VOC: Voice of the Customer refers to customer needs and perceptions of a product or service expressed in the customer’s language.
Value-added step: A process step that is essential for producing a product or service. The customer is willing to pay for this activity.
Warm-up (ice breaker): A short activity at the beginning of a meeting to get everyone talking, comfortable, and focused on the meeting.
Work-flow diagram: A tool for collecting data on how work flows through an operation. The path of work is recorded on a schematic of the workplace.
