Free templates for your Yellow Belt Project
These templates are designed to go alongside the book Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt: The Practitioner’s Guide to Your First Project.
A3 Storyboard (Blank)
The A3 Storyboard is a single-page problem-solving format used to capture the background, current condition, goal, root cause analysis, countermeasures, and follow-up plan for an improvement project. This blank version gives teams a structured starting point to work through their own problem from scratch.
Template available for download
A3 Storyboard (Completed)
This is a fully worked example of the A3 Storyboard, showing how a real (or illustrative) problem has been documented from initial background through to root cause and countermeasures. It’s useful as a reference for teams who want to see the format applied before starting their own.
Template available for download
Generic Storyboard (Blank)
The Generic Storyboard is a flexible, multi-page format for presenting an improvement project’s full journey — from problem to result — without the single-page constraint of an A3. This blank version gives teams a structured starting point to build their own storyboard from scratch, ready to complete and share with a wider audience, such as a review board or stakeholder group, as the project develops
Template available for download
Generic Storyboard (Completed)
A completed example of a general-purpose storyboard format, used to visually walk through a project or improvement activity step by step. This version demonstrates how to lay out the narrative of a project for a wider audience, such as a review board or stakeholder group.
Template available for download
Close-out Checklist
This template lists the actions needed to close an improvement project properly. It included handover and sponsor sign-off, benefits confirmed by finance, three- and six-month checks, and lessons learned. It is used at the end of Control and revisited at each check point, with an owner and date recorded against every action. The outcome is a project that is formally closed, with proven benefits and a clear record of what the team learned.
Template available for download
Control Plan
This template documents how each critical process step will be monitored once a fix is in place capture what needs to be measured, the target or specification, frequency, who owns it, and the reaction plan if a result falls out of spec. It’s the tool that sustains gains from the Improve phase, turning a one-off fix into a permanent part of how the process runs.
Template available for download
Fishbone (Ishikawa) Diagram
This template supports root cause analysis by organising potential causes of problem into categories (commonly People, Process, Equipment, Materials, Environment, and Measurement), branching off a central “spine.” It’s especially useful for group brainstorming sessions.
Template available for download
In/Out of Scope Tool
This template helps you agree the boundary of your project before you start. Place each element of the process, the team or the issue inside or outside the circle, then record the result and have your sponsor and process owner sign it off. It’s used in Define, straight after the problem statement.
Template available for download
Pareto Chart
A Pareto template helps teams rank causes or issues by frequency or impact, based on the principle that roughly 80% of problems often stem from 20% of causes. It’s used to prioritise which issues to tackle first for the greatest effect.
Template available for download
Team and Estimate Benefits
This template helps a team identify who is involved in an improvement activity and estimate the expected benefits — whether time saved, cost reduced, quality improved, or another measure. It’s typically used early in a project to build the business case and assign ownership.
Template available for download
VOC to CTQ Translation Tool
This template helps a team translate what the customer actually says into something they can measure, turning a comment, complaint, or piece of feedback into a Critical to Quality (CTQ) measure. It’s typically used early in Define, before setting the SMART objective, to make sure the project targets what the customer genuinely cares about.
Template available for download
Waste Walk / TIMWOODS
A structured walk-through used to spot the eight classic forms of waste in a process — Transport, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Overproduction, Overprocessing, Defects, and Skills (unused talent). Teams use this template while physically observing a process to log where each type of waste occurs.
Template available for download
5 Whys
This simple template guides a team through asking “why” repeatedly (typically five times) to drill down from a surface-level problem to its underlying root cause. It’s often used alongside or as a lighter alternative to the Fishbone diagram.
Template available for download