Variables which are of no experimental interest and are not held constant. Their effects are often assumed insignificant or negligible, or they are randomized to ensure that contamination of the primary response does not occur

A framework which translates a company's vision and strategy into a coherent set of performance measures. Developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton (published in the Harvard Business Review in 1993), a balanced business scorecard helps businesses evaluate how well they meet their strategic objectives. It typically has four to six components, each with a series of sub-measures. Each component highlights one aspect of the business. The balanced scorecard includes measures of performance that are lagging (return on capital, profit), medium-term indicators (like customer satisfaction indices) and leading indicators (such as adoption rates for, or revenue from, new products).

An annual award given to a United States company that excels in quality management and quality achievement [Same as MBNA.]

A chart that compares different groups of data to each other through the use of bars that represent each group. Bar charts can be simple, in which each group of data consists of a single type of data, or grouped or stacked, in which the groups of data are broken down into internal categories

The current condition that exists in a situation or representation (model) of a situation. Usually used to differentiate between a current and a future representation / Or / A specification or product that has been formally reviewed and agreed upon, that serves as the basis for further development, and that can be changed only through formal change control procedures

A definite quantity of some product or material produced under conditions that are considered uniform / Or / Pertaining to a system or mode of operation in which inputs are collected and processed all at one time, rather than being processed as they arrive, and a job, once started, proceeds to completion without additional input or user interaction. Contrast with conversational, interactive, on-line, real time

The results of an investigation to determine how competitors and/or best in class companies achieve their level of performance

A method of measuring processes against those of recognized leaders to establish priorities and targets leading to process improvement. It is undertaken by identifying strategies, customers, processes and costs to benchmark and their key characteristics; determining who to benchmark; collecting and analyzing data from direct contact, survey, interviews, technical journals and advertisements; determining the "best of class" from each benchmark item identified; and evaluating the process in terms of improvement goals / Or / A technique that involves comparing one's own processes to excellent examples of similar processes in other organizations or departments. Through benchmarking, rapid learning can occur, and processes can undergo dramatic improvements

A way or method of accomplishing a business function or process that is considered to be superior to all other known methods

A systematic error, which contributes to the difference between a population mean of measurements or test results and an accepted reference value

A term used to contrast the difference between managing for quality in all business processes and products (big Q) and managing for quality in a limited capacity traditionally in only factory products and processes (little q).

A structured listing of the sequence of activities performed to produce a unit of a product or service. Similar in concept to a bill of materials (BOM), which is a structured list of the components of a product

A leadership structure for Six sigma process improvement teams. Black Belts are highly regarded, technically oriented product or line personnel who have an ability to lead teams as well as to advise management

(1)Testing that ignores the internal mechanism or structure of a system or component and focuses on the outputs generated in response to selected inputs and execution conditions. (2) Testing conducted to evaluate the compliance of a system or component with specified functional requirements and corresponding predicted results. Syn. functional testing, input/output driven testing. Contrast with white-box testing

The block diagram is a simple pictorial representation of a system/sub systems linked to illustrate the relationships between components/subsystems / Or / a diagram that shows the operation, interrelationships, and interdependencies of components in a system. Boxes, or blocks (hence the name), represent the components; connecting lines between the blocks represent interfaces. There are two types of block diagrams: a functional block diagram, which shows a system’s subsystems and lower-level products, their interrelationships, and interfaces with other systems; and a reliability block diagram, which is similar to the functional block diagram except that it is modified to emphasize those aspects influencing reliability 

A relatively homogenous set of conditions within which different conditions of the primary variables are compared. Used to ensure that background variables do not contaminate the evaluation of primary variables

Pertaining to the principles of mathematical logic developed by George Boole, a nineteenth century mathematician. Boolean algebra is the study of operations carried out on variables that can have only one of two possible values, i.e., 1 (true) and 0 (false). As ADD, MULTIPLY, and DIVIDE are the primary operations of arithmetic, AND, OR, and NOT are the primary operations of Boolean Logic

Beginning or end point of a process that will be the focus of a process improvement effort. Best stated in a well developed Mission Statement

A selection technique in which test data are chosen to lie along "boundaries" of the input domain [or output range] classes, data structures, procedure parameters, etc. Choices often include maximum, minimum, and trivial values or parameters

A method to get ideas from persons who are potential contributors. No criticism or discussion of ideas is allowed until all the ideas are recorded. The ideas are critically reviewed after the brainstorming session / Or / A tool used to encourage creative thinking and new ideas. A group formulates and records as many ideas as possible concerning a certain subject, regardless of the content of the ideas. No discussion, evaluation, or criticism of ideas is allowed until the brainstorming session is complete

An instruction which causes program execution to jump to a new point in the program sequence, rather than execute the next instruction. Syn: jump

(Myers) A test case identification technique which produces enough test cases such that each decision has a true and a false outcome at least once. Contrast with path analysis

(NBS) A test coverage criteria which requires that for each decision point each possible branch be executed at least once. Syn: decision coverage. Contrast with condition coverage, multiple condition coverage, path coverage, statement coverage

A management technique which emphasizes the development of new, radical approaches to traditional constraints, as opposed to incremental or minor changes in thought that build on the original approach

Are products that do not have the characteristics of formed parts when received, but which become part of the product during the manufacturing process

(BAM, formerly called SBPR a contract vehicle sponsored by the Department of Defense. The contract provides business process reengineering support services focused on the higher order strategic and management assessment functions. Reengineering services include fully qualified BPR experts with functional knowledge in all aspects of process engineering, state of the art analytical tools and time tested methodologies for comprehensive process improvement

A structured proposal for business process improvement that functions as a decision package for enterprise leadership. A business case includes an analysis of business process needs or problems, proposed solution, assumptions and constraints, alternatives, life cycle costs, benefits/cost analysis, and investment risk analysis. Within DoD, a business case is called a Functional Economic Analysis (FEA)

A collection of activities that work together to produce a defined set of products and services. All business processes in an enterprise exist to fulfill the mission of the enterprise. Business processes must be related in some way to mission objectives

The betterment of an organization's business practices through the analysis of activities to reduce or eliminate non-value added activities or costs, while at the same time maintaining or improving quality, productivity, timeliness, or other strategic or business purposes as evidenced by measures of performance. Also called functional process improvement

A management method which stresses the fundamental rethinking of processes, questioning all assumptions, in an effort to streamline organizations, and to focus on adding value in core processes

A radical improvement approach that critically examines, rethinks, and redesigns mission-delivery processes and subprocesses, achieving dramatic mission performance gains from multiple customer and stakeholder perspectives

A structured approach by all or part of an enterprise to improve the value of its products and services while reducing resource requirements. The transformation of a business process to achieve significant levels of improvement in one or more performance measures relating to fitness for purpose, quality, cycle time, and cost by using the techniques of streamlining and removing added activities and costs