What is Six Sigma? A quality standard that is equivalent to generating fewer than 3.4 defects per million manufacturing or service operations. A methodology that provides government organizations with the tools to improve the capability of their business processes. This increase in performance and decrease in process variation lead to defect reduction and improvement in cost of service delivery, employee morale and quality of service to citizens. Need for Six Sigma in Government: Globalization and instant access to information, products and services have changed the way businesses, governments and citizens conduct business — old business models no longer work. Today's competitive environment leaves no room for error. Governments must delight their customers, be it citizens, businesses or employees and relentlessly look for new ways to exceed their expectations. This is why Six Sigma must become a part of Government culture. The issue of building quality systems and practices is not just confined to high technology businesses and software services companies. The Singapore Government is one of the first Governments to take the lead in building up quality systems and bring in operational excellence by leveraging various technologies. What is Six Sigma e-Governance? Six Sigma is a highly disciplined process that helps any organization to focus on developing and delivering near-perfect products and services. Why "Sigma"? The word is a statistical term that measures how far a given process deviates from perfection. The central idea behind Six Sigma is that if you can measure how many "defects" you have in a process, you can systematically figure out how to eliminate them and get as close to "zero defects" as possible. This can be achieved when the Process owner has the right tools to monitor a process and the right knowledge to improve it. Six Sigma will impact the DNA of a Government organization — it will change the way a Government organization  works — in everything a government does internally and in every service that government delivers externally, be it passport office, RTO, electricity supply or defence.