Category: Software
Activities vs. Performance: Improvement, Common Sense
Published:Most organizations have a strong bias toward planning, managing and executing a multitude of supposedly value-added activities hoping that these (often isolated) activities will yield significant results. In rare cases, activities are spawned by careful strategic planning, tracked regularly by performance data, reviewed for adjustments and improvements and integrated across functions, divisions and geographies. However, […]
Read more ยปCMMI or Six Sigma: Does It Matter Which Comes First?
Published:An organization is getting into process improvement. Should it look at the Software Engineering Institute’s capability maturity model integration (CMMI) first? Six Sigma first? Or both at the same time? This dilemma has confronted many organizations during the last several years. The situation reminds me of a session at a symposium in 1984 at which […]
Read more ยปBetter Involvement/Requirements with LURE and COPIS
Published:Implementing technology requires stakeholder involvement and good requirement development. When there is a misalignment in those areas businesses and their customers both suffer. LURE and COPIS can clarify perspectives and help avoid misalignment.
Read more ยปMeeting ITIL SLAs: MSA for Project Completion Time
Published:A common service level agreement (SLA) measurement among Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) practitioners is project completion time, in one form or another. Many use a percent difference measurement between actual and forecasted, others simply subtract the actual completion time from the forecasted completion time. Whatever the final calculation, using the elapsed time between when […]
Read more ยปBusiness Process Management for Software Development
Published:The term “business process management” (BPM) is often encountered in conjunction with Six Sigma and Lean initiatives. Typically it refers to identification of core business processes, assignment of process ownership and definition of measures (and perhaps benchmarks) that indicate the health of a particular process. These measures are often influential in selection of Six Sigma […]
Read more ยปDoing Some Software Six Sigma and Agile Mythbusting
Published:In serious software discussions, some ideas about Six Sigma that are being accepted as truths are a bit out of step with the latest facts and experience.
Read more ยปThree Lean Tools for Agile Development Environments
Published:Developers in an agile setting may want to familiarize themselves with this simple set of Lean tools โ quality function development, design structure matrix and visual control board.
Read more ยปUsing Six Sigma Tools in an Agile Software Project
Published:It may be counter-intuitive to consider using Six Sigma tools in an Agile software project. Six Sigma’s genesis was in the manufacturing world where one of its primary goals has been to reduce process variation. On the other hand, Agile software development is built on the premise that complex software projects, unlike manufacturing, cannot be […]
Read more ยปWhat CIOs and CTOs Need to Know About Lean Six Sigma
Published:CIOs and CTOs are faced with a plethora of issues ranging from corporate realignment to growth to shrinking budgets. Many have heard about Lean Six Sigma but given their busy state of mind, it is difficult for them to dedicate the time required to translate Lean Six Sigma successes in top manufacturing company’s to its […]
Read more ยปSoftware and IT Measurement Systems: Effort Accounting
Published:Effort accounting is needed in software and IT for the simple reason that labor is generally the most important controllable element of cost. Labor cost (effort hours times prevailing labor rate) is an essential and fundamental element of efficiency measurement. Six Sigma projects in software and IT (especially DMAICs) are often focused on driving down […]
Read more ยปSoftware Development Convergence: Six Sigma-Lean-Agile
Published:Some common messages are beginning to emerge from several software-relevant areas โ Six Sigma for software, Agile development and Lean thinking. The links between Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) and Agile have been explored recently, but now a broader view yet can illustrate the way that Lean thinking, evolved from just-in-time manufacturing, aligns well with […]
Read more ยปUsing DFSS to Improve Offshore Outsourcing Efficiency
Published:During the last several years, there has been a tremendous amount of discussion relating to the offshore outsourcing of software development work to achieve significant cost reductions. This has been an emerging trend for about a dozen years, but one that has been recently accelerated and subject to wild variations in success and efficiency. A […]
Read more ยปDFSS Meets Agile Development – Friend or Foe?
Updated:One of the big benefits of Six Sigma is the discipline it brings to the use of facts and measures to guide significant and predictable results. At first glance, that discipline might seem to fly in the face of the flexibility and creativity that also are very important in development and problem-solving. One potential collision […]
Read more ยปDFSS Study: Develop Software to Track Drug Side Effects
Published:Integrating Design for Six Sigma (DFSS), IDOV (identify, design, optimize, validate) roadmap and selected DFSS tools in the information technology (IT) system development methodology can strengthen the business focus of IT system delivery. Adding additional steps at the beginning and end of the traditional system development cycle for DFSS can support the better understanding of […]
Read more ยปDOE in Software Testing: The Potential and the Risks
Published:Testing software is hard work. Many aspects of software systems are difficult or impossible to observe and measure directly. That makes finding defects, characterizing performance and estimating reliability the toughest parts of the development process. While there are no silver bullets (and no “lead bullets” either, as per Dr. Barry Boehm, noted software engineering professor […]
Read more ยปManage IT Projects and Resources the Six Sigma Way
Published:Best-practice companies have been using Lean Six Sigma to drive Information Technology (IT) improvements and better software designs for years. But broad acceptance, despite proven results in the sector, has been slow. This may be due to a lack of understanding about the processes and benefits of Lean Six Sigma. By exploring how Lean Six […]
Read more ยปTips for Defining and Collecting IT Process Metrics
Published:Several information technology (IT) metrics can be developed on the basis of best practice frameworks such as capability maturity model integration (CMMI) and information technology infrastructure library (ITIL). Measuring and collecting such data, which is often part of process improvement initiatives, brings to light what is happening in IT processes. Following are a few tips […]
Read more ยปUsing Fault Tree Analysis to Improve Software Testing
Published:Testing a software product to remove hidden defects is an integral part of the software development life cycle (SDLC). Yet it is well accepted that running a software product through every possible scenario to check for defects is not just difficult, but usually impossible. The enormous cost and huge effort required is simply too much. […]
Read more ยปDefect Prevention: Reducing Costs and Enhancing Quality
Published:“Prevention is better than cure” applies to defects in the software development life cycle as well as illnesses in medical science. Defects, as defined by software developers, are variances from a desired attribute. These attributes include complete and correct requirements and specifications as drawn from the desires of potential customers. Thus, defects cause software to […]
Read more ยป8 Basics of Lean Six Sigma for Manufacturing Firms
Published:It takes more than quick fixes, outsourcing and downsizing to consistently achieve growth and profit objectives. For companies to grow, they need to master eight basics of Lean Six Sigma.
Read more ยปCausal Loop Diagrams: An Orientation in Software Context
Published:Among the tried and true tools in the Six Sigma kit, cause-and-effect diagrams in the simple form of a tree, a fishbone or a Y-to-x diagram are a big help in identifying factors (x’s) that may drive changes in a results variable of interest (Y). There are times, though, that a flat, two-dimensional hierarchy does […]
Read more ยปUsing Core Effectiveness Metrics to Drive Improvement
Published:A case can be made for using cost-of-quality metrics, combined with defect data, as overall measures of software and IT organizational effectiveness (Figure 1). The next logical step is to illustrate how these metrics might be used to drive improvement. The illustration can best be made with a “case study” of the famous-but-mythical software and […]
Read more ยปApplying Six Sigma to Software Implementation Projects
Published:Although the application of Six Sigma in software development is more frequently discussed, the methodology also can be applied to software implementation projects as well. Those familiar with software implementations know that they seldom go as planned. Delays are common, cost overruns are endemic and failures are frequent. Why is this so common? What can […]
Read more ยปSoftware Development Assessments for the 21st Century
Published:During the last 35 years, software development and technology processes in general have evolved at a rapid, even chaotic, rate. These processes range from small, Lean, agile (sometimes labeled iterative) development pockets to large, bureaucracy-laced legacy projects of tremendous scope (sometimes labeled waterfall development) and everything in between. Many organizations have undertaken attempts to classify, […]
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