Software Six Sigma for Software Engineering

Software Six Sigma is a strategy to enhance and sustain continuous improvements in software development process and quality management. It uses data and statistical analysis to measure and improve company's performance by eliminating defects in manufacturing and service related processes.

ATTRIBUTES OF SIX SIGMA

- genuine metric data.
- accurate planning.
- real time analysis and decision support by the use of statistical tools.
- high quality product.
- software improvement costs and benefits.

STEPS IN SIX SIGMA METHODOLOGY

- Customer requirements are defined, project goals via well defined methods.
- Quality performance is determined by measuring existing process and its output.
- Analyzing the defect metrics.
- Process improvement is done by eliminating the root causes of defects.
- Process control to ensure changes made in future will not introduce the cause of defects again.
These steps are referred to as DMAIC(define, measure,analyze,improve and control) method.

- Design the process to avoid the root causes of defects and to meet customer requirements.
- Verify the process model will avoid defects and meet customer requirements.
This variation is called DMADV(define, measure, analyze, design, and verify) method.

Benefits of Six Sigma certification (contd ..)

The previous post outlined some of the benefits that going in for Six Sigma certification entails. Here are some more benefits that are available as part of this certification:

- Six Sigma results in significant cost savings. Six Sigma lets you get more details about what is coming next, lets you prepare in more detail, there are less defects and less wastage
- The philosophy of Six Sigma is to improve customer satisfaction by preventing defects, thus resulting in greater satisfaction.
- Six Sigma initiates the practice of much enhanced vigilance about philosophy, about getting more customer satisfaction; and lead to the companies defining more measures for every element of the production / service chain
- Six Sigma training ensures that personnel are fully aware of the tools and techniques needed to improve quality, and explain the concept of variance, metrics, processes, etc to company personnel in a way that they would not have understood earlier
- The training helps people understand where all wastage happens in various processes, automatically leading to some reduction in waste
- Statistically, a company that has implemented Six Sigma is found to spend < 1% of revenue on rework compared to 10% for a company having Four Sigma
- Capacity and output are improved. As a part of reducing wastage, you can produce more correct products from the same capacity, or generate a higher level of software productivity from the same people
- Communication within the various groups is improved through the need for having better processes for all groups

Benefits of Six Sigma certification

Six Sigma is a major certification to display the quality of processes followed within a company; and it is not only limited to displaying the quality. The process of seeking and getting six sigma certification means that the company is making a statement that it wants its processes to be better, with lesser defects (both for manufacturing and services), and more customer focus. So what are the benefits that Six Sigma presents to companies that are looking to adopt it:
- First is the commitment to quality. Aiming for Six Sigma means that all levels of the organization are seeking to increase their commitment to quality, which automatically boosts the quality.
- Reduction in defects (and the public statement about the reduction in defects (whether these be through manufacture of goods or provision of services) means that customers would be more satisfied. As they see that the defect levels have gone down, they will be more likely to do repeat business.
- Many customers only entertain suppliers with a high level of quality, and having Six Sigma means that a company is displaying a very high commitment to quality, enabling the company to qualify for all cases
- Increased employee satisfaction. Many employees may be somewhat lukewarm to the concept of a more disciplined and quality focused approach, but as they see their output being valued by customers, they are likely to be more satisfied with their work.
- Increase productivity and profitability. As the number of defects reduce, the cost per unit of the production will go down, and will lead to enhanced levels of profitability, contributing to higher overall profits for the company
- The company will attract better talent, since a number of employees will feel more comfortable with a company employing such a high level of quality
(contd..)

What is Six Sigma ?

Six Sigma is an important measure of the quality of a system, being adopted by many top-class corporations the world over such as GE. Six Sigma has spawned an industry of its own, in terms of experts who go to corporations and figure out how these companies can improve their processes so as to meet Six Sigma quality standards, and there are teachers who give instructions as to how to become a Six Sigma expert. Six Sigma was initially implemented by Motorola, and is now adopted the world over. Six Sigma is primarily used in manufacturing and business practices, and seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and variations. Six Sigmas has its own infrastructure, such as - It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization ("Black Belts" etc.) who are experts in these methods. Six Sigma was originally developed as a set of practices designed to improve manufacturing processes and eliminate defects, but its application was subsequently extended to other types of business processes as well. In Six Sigma, a defect is defined as anything that could lead to customer dissatisfaction.
Sigma (the lower-case Greek letter σ) is used to represent the standard deviation (a measure of variation) of a statistical population. The term "six sigma process" comes from the notion that if one has six standard deviations between the process mean and the nearest specification limit, there will be practically no items that fail to meet specifications.

As a comparison of the various quality norms:
Short-term sigma levels correspond to the following long-term DPMO (defective parts per million opportunities) values:

* 1 sigma = 690,000 DPMO = 31% efficiency
* 2 sigma = 308,000 DPMO = 69.2% efficiency
* 3 sigma = 66,800 DPMO = 93.32% efficiency
* 4 sigma = 6,210 DPMO = 99.379% efficiency
* 5 sigma = 230 DPMO = 99.977% efficiency
* 6 sigma = 3.4 DPMO = 99.9997% efficiency

Put another way, this reads as “3.4 defects per million opportunities to make defects”. This is a very high level of quality, and it takes a lot of effort, hard work, and process improvements to reach this level. Six Sigma is also being implemented by many software development companies for their projects.