Six Sigma Certification

The Six Sigma Black Belt Body of Knowledge

For every Six Sigma certification, there is a specific Body of Knowledge that is important for the takers of the examination. It is a complete, well-detailed outline which contains the overall view of what the examination for that certain certification is like. The Body of Knowledge is produced by the ASQ.

Inside a certain Body of Knowledge are a number of main topics related to the job specific to that certain certification (in this case, the Six Sigma certification of Black Belt). Under the main topic are the subtopics, and every main topic is sequenced in accordance to the Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Taking an example from the outline, the first topic is entitled “enterprise-wide deployment”, which consists of nine (9) questions. This main topic has two subtopics, namely: “enterprise-wide view”, and “leadership”. The subtopics have various ideas that consist of a cognitive level; in this case, they represent the lower two levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy: “remember” and “understand”.

The next main topic under this Body of Knowledge for the Six Sigma certification for Black Belt is “organizational process management and measures”, containing nine (9) questions. It has five subtopics, all supporting the next cognitive level in Bloom’s Taxonomy, which is “apply”.

Going through this specific Body of Knowledge, one can concur that it is a different set of ideas and topics as opposed to the Body of Knowledge for other certifications. This is because the outline is job specific to the area at hand. In short, every Body of Knowledge is unique.

This Body of Knowledge makes up an examination that is good for four hours, and is a one-hundred fifty item test that is in the form of multiple-choice. Every topic progression commits to the paradigm of cognitive levels, or Bloom’s Taxonomy. Though this test is long, it is actually an open-book exam.