How can you apply Six Sigma to a software development project?

Similar questions: apply Sigma software development project.

Not sure it applies Six Sigma, as I understand it, is largely about and for manufacturing, although it can be adapted to other sorts of businesses. Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, notably, use six sigma and are certainly not manufacturers. Both DMAIC and DMADV could be applied to software engineering pretty straightforwardly, and I'm sure there are a hundred six sigma black belts out there willing to show you how for only a billion dollars in consulting fees.

However, software development processes are unique in that they are a relatively young type of product development. The costs and benefits of software as well as the optimal strategies for success are fairly unique in the software sphere. As such, piles and piles of research has been put into that particular area as a specialty.

Banging a six sigma design to fit a software development process doesn't seem as valuable to me as selecting a software development paradigm. Many flavors of software engineering share very similar components with good six sigma processes, especially a carefully controlled iterative or agile development process. Your best bet may be to study agile design.

Hope that helps! CowOfDeath's Recommendations The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, 20th Anniversary Edition Amazon List Price: $39.99 Used from: $14.99 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 117 reviews) Agile Project Management with Scrum (Microsoft Professional) Amazon List Price: $39.99 Used from: $30.37 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 23 reviews) Agile Software Development with SCRUM Amazon List Price: $39.00 Used from: $28.82 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 25 reviews) .

Six Sigma Meets Software Development Six Sigma is a mantra that many of the most successful organizations in the world swear by and the trend is getting hotter by the day. So much so that corporations like GE insist that every project be a Six Sigma project. The Six Sigma methodology has indeed made a tangible difference to the bottom lines of many corporations and they have the numbers to prove it because Six Sigma requires constant and consistent measurement.

While the Six Sigma body of knowledge provides great tools for improving product and process quality (DMAIC) and even for developing new products (DFSS and DMADV), some work is still needed for managing software projects. The fit between Six Sigma and software project management methodology is not always obvious. Some of the common Six Sigma tools don't easily lend themselves to software projects.

Part of the reason is possibly that engineering and manufacturing have evolved over hundreds of years, software development is only a few decades old. Also, software development tends to teeter between an art form and an inexact science. Practitioners in the software development arena are not always comfortable or adept with rigorous quantitative analysis.

Six Sigma Versus SDLCSix Sigma emphasizes quality from the beginning. Most often conventional Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodologies introduce the quality processes towards the end of the project cycle, just before implementation. Some commonly used terms are unit testing, system testing, integration testing, etc.Some of the better methodologies emphasize design reviews and code reviews, but these too come in after the fact in that there is already a deliverable.

Six Sigma rectifies that by introducing tollgates for every stage of the project life. Thus the concept, requirements gathering, systems specification, software development, software testing, rollout, and maintenance phases of the SDLC translate into corresponding tollgates. The introduction of tollgates from the very beginning of a software project improves the chance that it will be successful project.

Six Sigma Tools For SDLCThe Six Sigma approach is most helpful in a software development project in the concept and requirements gathering phase. Problem definition and stakeholder analysis provide great tools for developing the project concept. CTQ analysis helps in clearly identifying the requirements.

This approach also ensures that the primary project focus is on the deliverables and not the technology. Process mapping plays an important part in any Six Sigma project. Mapping the process helps in understanding the problem space and boundaries.

Most Six Sigma tools are suited for discovering data relationships by quantitative or physical methods. Such relationships are typically represented as algebraic or other forms of equations. These equations define the relationships between the goal (Y) and the variables affecting it (Xs).

In software development, data relationships are generally easily discovered via interviewing and process mapping. Data flow diagrams, entity relationship diagrams, and object models are commonly used tools to represent data in software projects. These diagrams represent the data that the software will manage, whereas the Six Sigma approach tries to find the data that defines the problem.

The one software development area where Six Sigma methodology falls short is in measuring a system architecture for quality. Peer reviews and simulations provide a way to review the quality of an architecture design with respect to the CTQs. However, these tend to be subjective in their approach and are not easily transferable from one project to the next.

These approaches also do not ensure optimization. ConclusionSix Sigma is a sound methodology for managing projects.It will continue to evolve to address the specific needs of software projects. SDLC methodologies will borrow even more from Six Sigma as the benefits continue to grow.

Be on the look out for the "Six Sigma for SDLC" methodology, as I'm sure it is around the corner. Sources: http://www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c020603a.asp .

Using Six Sigma in Software Development Each year at Lockheed Martin, corporate management challenges its Integrated Systems & Solutions business unit (IS&S) to reduce total costs. Each year, IS&S uses Six Sigma tools to make it happen. “Six Sigma has resulted in significant cost savings,” said Lynn Penn, director of quality systems and process management at IS&S.

“It’s a structured approach that provides more than a checklist—it shows you what’s coming next, lets you look at data from different views, and gives you a big picture of your practices for making decisions. ”Lockheed Martin is part of a growing number of organizations using Six Sigma to improve software quality and cycle time, reduce defects in products and services, and increase customer satisfaction. As Six Sigma evolves from an improvement framework for the manufacturing sector to one that can be applied across all levels of an enterprise, the SEI is looking at ways that Six Sigma has benefited software and systems development.

More Than a MetricSix Sigma is an approach to business improvement that includes a philosophy, a set of metrics, and an improvement framework (also called a toolkit). Its philosophy is to improve customer satisfaction by eliminating and preventing defects, resulting in increased profitability. Sigma (S) is the Greek symbol used to represent standard deviation, or the amount of variation in a process.

Six Sigma (6S) refers to a measure of process variation (six standard deviations) that translates into an error or defect rate of 3.4 parts per million, or 99.9997 percent. In Six Sigma, defects are defined as any product, service, or process variation that prevents the needs of the customer from being met. During the 1980s, large manufacturing companies such as Motorola, General Electric, and Allied Signal first used Six Sigma processes to collect data, improve quality, lower costs, and virtually eliminate defects in fielded products.

Using both statistical and non-statistical methods, the approach soon spread to several major service industries, and today software practitioners are exploring ways to apply Six Sigma techniques to improve software and systems development. “Six Sigma is more than just a metric,” says Jeannine Siviy, a leading Six Sigma practitioner at the SEI. “Maintaining vigilance about the philosophy, customer satisfaction, and business profitability is crucial to Six Sigma success.

Using this philosophy, organizations can define sigma measures and thresholds in customer terms and then link these to engineering measures such as defect density, cost, and schedule performance. ”Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, for example, used Six Sigma to help in its move from Maturity Level 3 of the SEI CMMI models to Level 5 in just one year. Rick Hefner, director of process initiatives, said all of their engineers and managers attend a two-week training course in Six Sigma and complete a six-month Six Sigma project.

This work is augmented by additional training on the Quantitative Project Management and Causal Analysis and Resolution process areas of CMMI Maturity Levels 4 and 5. “Six Sigma provided the tools and techniques to get to Level 5 more quickly,” said Hefner. “We were able to move from Level 3 to Level 5 in a year, which is directly attributable to the knowledge and culture established by Six Sigma.

All the engineers and managers understand process and process variation, as well as the importance of business value, the voice of the customer, and many other Six Sigma tools and techniques. Now everyone is using Six Sigma as part of their everyday job; you hear the terminology at meetings … and no one is shocked or surprised. That’s just the way we talk now.”

Accelerating Technology Adoption: Six Sigma and CMMISiviy leads a research team at the SEI examining how Six Sigma techniques have helped organizations such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to adopt and institutionalize best engineering practices. Her team is concentrating on how Six Sigma accelerates the adoption of the CMMI models, as well as its applicability to software architecture practices, systems integration, information technology (IT) operations and security, and acquisition practices. Accelerating technology adoption is important to many software and systems organizations, says Eileen Forrester, a member of Siviy’s SEI team.

“We’re finding some great reports about faster results Sources: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/news-at-sei/features/2004/1/feature-3.htm .

1 1..First gather all your money2..Now throw it at the Six Sigma Consultants3..Rinse and Repeat.

1..First gather all your money2..Now throw it at the Six Sigma Consultants3..Rinse and Repeat.

2 In the defense of the six sigma consultants, every trendy management technique works basically like that, but none of the other ones make you feel like a ninja.

In the defense of the six sigma consultants, every trendy management technique works basically like that, but none of the other ones make you feel like a ninja.

" "Good Project/Task Management Software?" "I am looking for great Customer Management software for my business" "Explain how the project manager will apply the leadership and motivational theories in a project environment. " "Looking for book name: it's about a computer development project, it was the story of a 2 year development process? " "How many of the software development businesses in the US have fewer than 50 employees?" "Is there a standard sequence of testing steps in software development?

Best Project Management & Billing Software.

I am looking for great Customer Management software for my business.

Explain how the project manager will apply the leadership and motivational theories in a project environment.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.