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..SIX SIGMA FOR SOFTWARE & IT |
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| Traditionally, Six Sigma has been practiced in manufacturing and hardware oriented processes - referred to as the First Wave. Later it was applied successfully to the service and transactional areas - this was the Second Wave. Subsequently, application of Six Sigma to software led the Third Wave of breakthrough improvements and results for technology driven companies. |
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What's different about Software? Among many other things, the main difference is that while in Manufacturing the "first
article build" is the easy part and the challenge lies in scaling to volume delivery, in Software it is the "first article" which
is the focus of our design, build and test efforts. Also, the notion that " software being intangible can't be measured, and you can't manage what you can't measure", has been proven to be a myth.
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A study conducted on behalf of the National Institute of Standards and Technology identifies around 40 metrics that
can potentially be measured, and thus provide the basis for the execution of a defined and statistically based improvement methodology.
As a matter of fact, migration of the power of Six Sigma methodology into the Software and IT environment came about as a result of an increasing demand for it from this sector. That apart, evidence of usefulness of Six Sigma in Software and IT can be found in the widely publicised Six Sigma successes achieved in this sector.
It is suggested that about 40% of total software cost relates to poor quality and resultant rework. Further, 60% of software projects are regarded "failures" - delayed by six months or more, and many more get cancelled.So, what are the problems in software development that need to be addressed? Our 28 years of experience in the software business leads us to agree with our strategic partners SSAI, who have identified five major factors as follows.
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Software best practices, although well understood, are not widely deployed |
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The business case for improvements has not been linked to business strategy |
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Most software professionals are so overwhelmed by the need to keep pace with the technology change, that they do not have the time or the expertise to address the software process problems |
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Most business professionals are so overwhelmed by the need to keep pace with the change in the global markets and customer expectations, that they demand software delivery schedules that are unrealistic, if not impossible |
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Most software failures are traceable to Requirements Failures, Expectation Failures and Execution Failures |
Obviously, applying Six Sigma to Software and IT needs a "specialised" approach, and merely an "add-on" to "software-
ise" the conventional approach is not going to address the issue. In our training programs for Software and IT, all examples, exercises and practice problems are carefully and specifically selected, depending on whether the course is
meant for the Manufacturing sector or the Software and IT sector. We do not use any of the older classics, as these are
essentially meaningless to Software and IT professionals.
We believe that while applying Six Sigma to product and process improvement in software, the methodology
should leverage the contributions of a wide range of industry best practices and standards. It needs to integrate with the existing initiatives like the Baldrige criteria, ISO 9001:2000, Lean, IEEE, SEI CMM / CMMI, ITIL, PSP/TSP, UML, RUP, PMBoK and others as applicable.
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