Six Sigma Green Belt — Approach

I recently attended Six Sigma Green Belt from ISI, Delhi. Through out the course I wanted to understand that how useful can this course be for someone who is Developing products and solutions

I am mentioning the approach of how can we use Six Sigma with respect to Software products and some key terms that define Six Sigma.

Coming to the key concepts of Six sigma, than first we need to understand what Six sigma really is. Six Sigma is a scientific, innovative and strategic way of doing business. It focuses upon making profits by taking decisions based on Data.

Some important terminologies:

• CTQ — Critical To Quality is a parametric representation of voice of customer.
• CTQ Tree — Tool that converts customers language into Quantified requirements
• SIPOC — Supplier; Input; Process; Output; Customer
• Defects — A feature in product that causes dissatisfaction to a customer
• Unit — A product or a line of software
• Opportunity — A unit may have more than one type of defect and each of these is an opportunity
• DPU — Defects Per Unit, Total number of defects divided by total number of unit
• Yield — Output/Input
• FMEA — Failure Mode Effect Analysis is a diagnostic technique used to identify and eliminate known or potential failures.

Approach:

• The most important concept of Six Sigma is D M A I C, that is Define Measure Analyse Improve Control
• Define: In the define phase we define all the requirements and all of the stakeholders, including internal and external customers are identified along with the process or business units involved. This results in a charter that sets the scope of the project and determines all of the required resources. We create the full plan, Software Requirement Specification document, define CTQ and project charter
• Measure: In measure phase we refine the requirement, convert the project into phases, using Pareto rule focus on the most important requirement that need to be achieved in Phase 1, define performance goals and gather the data. We might use Analysis Gage R & R. The foremost thing to do is a Process Mapping
• Analyze: Analyze the factors contributing to the problem in order to identify the root causes for the critical factors impacting performance and prioritize those root causes. Verify the Software Development Cycle, redraw the timelines and identify the key pain areas. Using Process FMEA (Failure Mode Effect Analysis) one can identify the key areas. Cause and Effect diagram can be used to get a holistic list of the causes of failure
• Improve: Identify, implement and evaluate improvement solutions to eliminate root causes of the problem in part or in whole. Incorporate the changes in a pilot project or a smaller module of solution, compare the results with the previous solution. Continuous prototyping and comparison will help in refining the solution
• Control: To ensure that the changes are sustained a comprehensive control plan is required. Continuous monitoring of the changes and continuous feedback from users will improve the solution and product. Documenting the new level of performance and selecting the right success metric is the key

In my past experiences as well, I have not seen organizations applying Six Sigma in product development. But it can certainly impact the development process in a good way.