Ben, Black Belt in waiting, sends a "entertaining, and thought-provoking" article from the fine iSixSigma site To BB Or Not To BB?. A sample, from the "Not To BB" list,
"1. The work pace won't slow down. On the contrary, you'll probably be putting in 50+ hours a week and wishing more were available. This is not a way to escape from your hectic job, or to hide out until retirement."
I have to admit I have trepidation about moving from Green Belt to Black Belt, with the project management and statistic emphasis as well as the managing multiple projects aspect. Does BB and 2 elementary kids at home mix?
Line56.com: Solving the Process Puzzle
Comment from IDS-Scheer founder Dr. August-Wilhelm Scheer on the growing importance of business process, even to the point of moving your Chief Information Officer to Chief Process Officer.
"The CIO should be responsible not only for the technological infrastructure but also for the content," says Scheer. "The CIO should be responsible for what people are doing with the technology and how they can get benefits." In other words, the CIO needs to think about crafting and applying reusability principles that tie right into process management wherever it is deployed.Sadly, though, the brief tenure of most CIOs makes it difficult for them to get past high-profile technology deployments and into the process layer. Scheer admits that, until CIOs are not associated primarily with, and switched out as frequently as, 'their' technology, it'll be difficult to get them to transition to a CPO-like function.
This is an interesting position. Gartner/MetaGroup has recommended moving the Enterprise Architecture group which would include the Business Process Architecture, under the Chief Strategy Officer to provide that business focus to IT efforts.