At first glance PRINCE2 might be confused for the reemergence of the artist formally known as prince and Six Sigma can easily be the name of the frat your brother swore allegiance to over a head butt and a brusky.

In actuality they are both popular forms of strategic management. PRINCE2 [Which is derived from the earlier project management method, PRINCE, (DUHH)] is a structured method for effective project management for all types of projects. PRINCE2 is used extensively by the UK government and many private firms. The key principles of PRINCE2 are justification of all aspects of a business, a well defined organizational structure, a product-based planning approach, and the dividing of projects into manageable and controllable stages. The goal of PRINCE2 is to gain efficient control of resources and carry out projects in a controlled and organized manor.

Six Sigma is a measurement based strategic method that centers on process improvement. The main focus of Six Sigma is to identify and remove the causes of defects and errors in manufacturing and business processes. To achieve Six Sigma, a process must not produce more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. Six Sigma was originally developed my Motorola and has been put to use by some of today’s top companies such as Amazan.com, Dell, General Electric, and many more.

In fact, the popularity of Six Sigma is so great that it was featured in an episode of the hit show, 30 Rock. Yes, that’s right; Six Sigma (not to be confused with G.I. Joe’s Sigma 6) had a cameo on 30 Rock. In season one, the GE CEO, Jack Donaghy (played by Alec Baldwin) starts sitting in on the writers meetings to try and get a better under standing of how the company works, stating that “the Sixth Sigma, GE corporate training course calls on managers to know every facet of the business intimately”. What makes this extra humorous is that GE’s former CEO, Jack Welch is the man credited for popularizing Six Sigma.

In conclusion, I would personally like to congratulate Six Sigma for breaking its way into today’s pop culture and paving the way for other seemingly obscure management principles alike. So, be on the lookout for VH1’s new show best project manager week ever….