Step 2 · 5 min read

Define & Measure

The first half of a DMAIC project is about getting honest. You agree what the problem is (Define), then you put numbers on it (Measure). Skip these and your analysis later will chase the wrong thing.

About 5 minutes

What you'll cover

By the end of this chapter you'll have…

A complete charter

Problem statement, team, drivers, risks, stakeholders, schedule.

VOC and CTQs

Customer voices translated into measurable quality requirements with spec limits.

A capability number

Cp/Cpk telling you whether the process can hit spec today.

Define

Lock in the problem before you touch data.

The Charter is the single agreement everyone on the project signs off on. It's a one-screen contract: what the problem is, who's working on it, what's in scope, what isn't, and when key milestones land. The header shows a completeness bar so you can see at a glance what's missing.

The seven panes of the charter

  1. Team. The people doing the work. You'll be the Lead by default; add Contributors as you go.
  2. Overview. Problem statement, business case, goal statement, scope.
  3. Drivers. What's pushing this onto the agenda — cost, complaints, compliance.
  4. Leverage. What strengths the team has going in (data quality, executive sponsor, recent similar wins).
  5. Risks. What could derail it — resource availability, vendor issues, seasonal cycles.
  6. Stakeholders. Who needs to be informed and who needs to approve. The executive summary later mirrors this list when sending the PDF.
  7. Schedule. Target dates for each DMAIC phase. These show up on the final report as a milestone strip.

Voice of the Customer (VOC) and CTQs

A VOC entry is a direct quote from a customer or stakeholder. "The seal pops off if I drop the bottle" is a VOC entry. A CTQ — Critical to Quality — is the measurable thing that VOC implies: "Seal retention force ≥ 8N when dropped from 1m". LeanProjax lets you link each CTQ back to the VOC it came from, so the audit trail is intact when you present.

web.leanprojax.co
leanProjaxWORKSPACEOverviewAssignmentsInvitationsWORKSPACE ADMINSettingsWORKSPACESCOWNER← All assignmentsDecrease line-3 scrap rate — Q3 initiativeCut line-3 scrap from 7.2% to under 2% by end of Q3 without adding inspection headcount…EditToolkit →Shadowing →Executive summary →View reportDownload PDFCOMPLETEDRe-openAI ASSESSMENTOpen the full reviewUpdated May 12, 11:24 PM · fallback→CharterVOC8CTQ10Processes4FMEA14Recommendations12MembersActivityPROJECT CHARTER18 of 19 fields filled · 95%Save charterAssignment TeamSponsor, owner, and the core delivery group.4/4 ▾Program sponsorElena Ross — VP OperationsProcess ownerDavid Kim — Plant Manager, BaysideProgram managementJordan Riley — PMO Lead; weekly steering with COOProject teamRoles + namesProject OverviewWhy this project exists and what success looks like.5/5 ▾Strategic alignmentWhy this project matters — link to a quarterly OKR or business outcome.Drivers · Leverage · Risks · Stakeholders · Schedulecollapsed
Figure 1An assignment opened on the Charter tab — the eight project tabs run across the top, completeness on the right.
  1. 1Eight tabs cover every artefact in the project — Charter is just the first stop.
  2. 2The completeness bar tells you exactly how many fields are still empty.
  3. 3Save charter persists the current state. (Body fields also autosave as you type.)
  4. 4Sections collapse independently so you can focus on one pane at a time.

Measure

Put numbers on what's happening today.

With the charter signed off, switch to the Measure tab. The goal is a honest, current-state baseline. If you can't measure it, you can't move it.

1. Map the process

Open the Process map tool from the right rail or the Toolkit tab. List the steps from start to finish, mark which steps are value-add, and flag any that depend on a specific person or system. Pair it with a SIPOC (Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers) to make the boundaries explicit.

2. Plan the data collection

Use the Data collection plan tool to declare what you'll measure, how often, where, and who's doing it. Don't skip this — a week of mis-labelled data costs more than ten minutes of planning.

3. Collect the measurements

Type values directly into the table, paste from Excel, or import an .xlsx file. Each row is one observation; each column is one process variable.

4. Read capability

Once you have at least 30 measurements per variable, open the Capability tool. LeanProjax computes Cp, Cpk, Pp, and Ppk and shows them next to a fitted histogram with the spec limits drawn in. Anything below 1.0 means the process can't reliably hit spec; 1.33+ is the common industry bar.

Up next

Define and Measure done — onward to root cause.

You've got the problem statement, the team, the baseline data, and a capability number. The next chapter covers Analyze, Improve, Control — finding the real cause, picking a fix, and locking in the gains.