A review of the process for successfully building a pilot plan, which is used for managing and communicating all potential improvements to pilot.

1. Section & Lesson #:
Pre-Requisite Lessons:
Complex Tools + Clear Teaching = Powerful Results
Piloting Solutions: Build the Pilot Plan
Six Sigma-Improve – Lesson 9
A review of the process for successfully building a pilot plan, which is used
for managing and communicating all potential improvements to pilot.
Six Sigma-Improve #08 – Piloting Solutions: The Process
Copyright © 2011-2019 by Matthew J. Hansen. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photographic, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior permission in writing by the author and/or publisher.

2. The Pilot Plan Defined
o Note: this pilot plan can be used in the same way as an implementation plan.
o What is a pilot plan?
 The pilot plan is a prioritized list of actions that comprise all improvements to be piloted.
– For each action in the pilot plan, the responsible owner and due date for those actions are identified.
– The pilot plan also includes a method for managing all actions by tracking each action’s progress.
 We know what we want to pilot; do we really need a pilot plan? Won’t it slow us down?
– Many people begin a pilot without building a plan.
– Consider the old adage “He who fails to plan, plans to fail.”
– Let’s consider the risks/rewards vs. cost of a plan:
Copyright © 2011-2019 by Matthew J. Hansen. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means (electronic, mechanical, photographic,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior permission in writing by the author and/or publisher.
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Cost: 2 hr team meeting
Risk: miss critical action
Risk: miss critical metric
Risk: miscommunication
Risk: delays in actions
Reward: team confidence

3. The Process for Building the Pilot Plan
o What is the process for building a pilot plan?
• The pilot plan can be built within about 2 hours with the team using the following steps:
o Below is an example of a pilot plan with the respective process steps:
Copyright © 2011-2019 by Matthew J. Hansen. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means (electronic, mechanical, photographic,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior permission in writing by the author and/or publisher.
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1. Identify all
improvements
2. Prioritize all
improvements
3. Break down
improvements
into actions
4. Identify any
pre-requisite
or sub-actions
5. Assign
action owners
& due dates
INPUT to Meeting PROCESS during Meeting OUTPUT from Meeting
Prereq. Priority Owner Due
A The first sub-action within this first major action. Low Hansen 1/5/12
B The second sub-action within this first major action. Med Smith 1/10/12
C The third sub-action within this first major action. 1A High Hansen 1/13/12
A The first sub-action within this second major action. 1A High Jones 1/9/12
B The second sub-action within this second major action. Med Hansen 1/14/12
C The third sub-action within this second major action. 1A, 2B Med Smith 1/17/12
Action Description
Action 1: The first major action in the pilot or implementation
1
Action 2: The second major action in the pilot or implementation
2
#1 & #3 –Improvements
noted as actions
#5 – Owners
& Due Dates
#2 – Priority of
Improvements/actions
#4 – Sub-actions &
pre-requisite actions
Due Date Legend:
= Complete
= Due Soon
= Needs Attention

4. Building the Pilot Plan: Steps 1 to 3
o INPUT to Meeting
• #1 – Identify all improvements
 At this point, this step should already be complete with possibly also a risk assessment (FMEA).
o PROCESS During Meeting
• Meeting Kick-Off (~15 min)
 The Sponsor/Champion may want to kick-off the meeting and return at the end to review the results.
 As necessary, review each of the improvements to ensure everyone agrees.
• #2 – Prioritize all improvements (~10 – 20 min)
 If there are multiple improvements, everyone should agree on the level of priority for each.
– This is critical because some pilot actions may require pulling from the same resources. Defining the priority of the
improvements up-front helps clarify for the action owners the priority each resource can provide to the sub-actions.
 It’s OK if some improvements have equal priority as long as it doesn’t create a delay or conflict among the
resources required for the sub-actions.
 Sort the list of improvements in order of priority and ensure the entire team agrees.
• #3 – Break down improvements into actions (~20 min)
 Some improvements may require similar actions (e.g., coordination for IT changes, data extractions, etc.).
 For very similar improvements, consider grouping them to share the actions (as long as it makes sense).
 The action should be defined briefly; if longer explanations are required, notate them separately.
Copyright © 2011-2019 by Matthew J. Hansen. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means (electronic, mechanical, photographic,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior permission in writing by the author and/or publisher.
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5. Building the Pilot Plan: Steps 4 & 5
o PROCESS During Meeting (continued)
• #4 – Identify any pre-requisite or sub-actions (~30 – 40 min)
 Begin by identifying all the steps and actions required to complete that one overall action/improvement.
– Sub-actions should represent logical steps possibly defined by different resources needed, approvals, system events, etc.
– If the same action has different sub-actions that can be done simultaneously, then notate them as separate sub-actions.
– It may help to start with the goal for the high-level action, then step backwards to find their respective sub-actions.
 If a sub-action is dependent on another sub-action, add the 1st action’s # as a pre-requisite for the 2nd.
 Be patient, this part of the pilot plan get very detailed. Be sure all sub-actions are fully identified.
o OUTPUT From Meeting
• #5 – Assign action owners and due dates (~20 – 30 min)
 This is extremely critical! Action owners & due dates must be identified for EACH sub-action.
– Without this, there is little accountability and the pilot is at risk for delays or failure.
– It’s OK if one person is designated as owner for one action and therefore all of its respective sub-actions.
– This part of the meeting makes people uncomfortable; don’t let that stop you from doing it!
 When is it OK to use TBD (To Be Determined)?
– “TBD” should never be identified as an action owner; every action MUST have an owner.
– “TBD” can be used as the due date for some actions (especially lower priority ones) if that action’s owner agrees.
 Be sure the due dates for a sub-action don’t precede the due dates for its respective pre-requisite action.
 Be sure the owners & due dates all seem reasonable.
– If an owner’s name appears many times, then call them out to make sure they agree to that work and the due dates.
Copyright © 2011-2019 by Matthew J. Hansen. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means (electronic, mechanical, photographic,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior permission in writing by the author and/or publisher.
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6. Practical Application
o Identify at least 2 different projects or initiatives at your organization that involved the
implementation of a significant process change and answer the following questions:
• Were the process changes piloted?
 If not, then why not?
 If a pilot was run, then was a formal pilot plan built before beginning the pilot?
– If not, then why not?
– What problems during the pilot and implementation could have been avoided if a formal pilot plan were built?
– What delays were encountered in the pilot (if any) that could’ve been avoided if a formal pilot plan were built and used to
coordinate, communicate and manage all necessary actions?
Copyright © 2011-2019 by Matthew J. Hansen. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means (electronic, mechanical, photographic,
photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior permission in writing by the author and/or publisher.
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