How project management principles affect Lean Six Sigma program and projects

Abstract

Goal: This paper aims to explores and understand which project management principles most contributes to implementing Lean Six Sigma program and projects. Design/Methodology/Approach: Through a systematic literature review, some key works related to the objective were searched in Scopus and Web of Science databases in order to provide metadata that could be further analysed and used as source of information to answer the research questions of this work. Results: The research provides evidence that project alignment with organizational goals plays a significant role in Lean Six Sigma program success, referring the importance of a structured portfolio management. To complement the list of principles, stakeholder’s management and well-defined project scope also contributes to same success metrics. In the other hand, risk management, project schedule and hybrid project management approaches remain unclear in the literature, do not providing sufficient data to validate its relation to success. Limitations of the investigation: As principal limitation could be pointed the project selection by title and abstract analysis and the coding scheme. Both points are not easy to be replicated, but the final sample could retrieve closer results. Practical Implications: For practitioners, this work contributes summarizing in a quantitative form which are the principal principles in project management that could be used to implement or improve Lean Six Sigma project and programs. Originality/ Value: This work brings for academics what were discussed early about the constructs Lean Six Sigma and Project Management and which are the gaps that remains unclear.