Applying Six Sigma in Software Companies for Process Improvement

ABSTRACT Modern society has a higher demand for quality than it had before. There is a Plethora of quality improvement techniques available which makes it harder for companies to decide which one to apply. They need support in this decision and in knowing how to apply the chosen techniques, if they want to improve their business and stay competitive. Six Sigma approach is a very successful manufacturing quality

improvement tool. n the last two decades, it has helped many companies to success. !ecently, the Six Sigma approach as introduced in the software development industry. Some software companies have been trying to adapt Six Sigma for their business and development processes. "ut there are misconceptions about the applicability of Six Sigma in software s. #urthermore there is no generic software quality improvement solution based a generic software company quality improvement solution based on Six Sigma approach. n this thesis we take a first step towards such a solution. The thesis starts from Six Sigma concept identification and on Six Sigma. So there is a demand to debunk the misconceptions related to the applicability of Six Sigma. $nd to develop

manufacturing investigation. $fter conducting interviews, a case study and several case studies reviews, we detail our method. %e expect thesis result to be useful for software companies when applying Six Sigma in their company for process improvement.

INTRODUCTION This chapter mainly discusses why authors have chosen Six Sigma for their master thesis and what will be done in this field. The description is divided into four parts & Motivation, $ims and 'b(ectives, !esearch )uestions, and !esearch Methodology. $nd also, the outline of the entire paper is presented by the end of this chapter.

"otivation

n recent years, the companies and organi*ations around the world are showing great interests in quality. Six Sigma approach is a structured quantitative method which is invented by Motorola in +,-. for improving the product quality. ts aim is to enhance organi*ations performance by using statistical analytic techniques. $fter two decades of successful implementation in manufacturing, Six Sigma is approved as an effective methodology for improving quality. /owadays, some researchers believe that Six Sigma can bring large benefits for software companies. #urthermore, software companies have already started to implement Six Sigma approach, like 0ricsson, Tata 1onsultancy Service, etc. 2owever, there are still some problems and misconceptions existed about the applicability of Six Sigma in software companies.

'ur

work

can

help

to

debunk

the

misconceptions

about

the

applicability of Six Sigma in software companies. $nd provide steps for software companies to implement Six Sigma. The scope of this paper is demonstrated in #igure +.+ which shows the relationship between )uality and Six Sigma.

!# Aims an$ O%&ectives The main aim of this paper is to provide Steps for software companies who want to implement Six Sigma for process improvement. To achieve that, following ob(ectives shall be reached3 dentify the differences of Six Sigma in manufacturing and software companies. 4iscuss the acceptance of Six Sigma in software companies. 1ompare the academic research results with the reality of software companies. dentify the state5of5art of Six Sigma in software.

Screen out the suitable Six Sigma tools and techniques for software companies. 4iscuss the future work for Six Sigma in software companies.

!' Researc( )*estions To reach the goal of the thesis, the following research questions shall be answered. %hat are the definitions of Six Sigma6 %hat is the condition of Six Sigma in manufacturing6 $re there any hurdles when we implement it to software companies6 %hy software companies choose Six Sigma6 %hat kind of tools and techniques are used in Six Sigma6 %hich of them are suitable for process improvement in software companies6 %hat is the state5of5art for the implementation of Six Sigma in software6 %hat are the steps to implement Six Sigma in software companies for process improvement6 %hat is the further work for Six Sigma in software6

!+ Researc( "et(o$ology $ mixed methodology will be used which include both qualitative and quantitative research. $nd this mixed methodology has been used for authors research. "oth qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were used.

the qualitative

research

methodology

part, a

detailed

and

comprehensive literature study have been carried

out. The literature

study consists of articles, books, web materials, discussion forms and others. The literature study is used to find out the characteristics of Six Sigma, the tools and techniques used in Six Sigma, and to analy*e the suitability of these tools and techniques for process improvement in software companies. $ list of tools and techniques have been provided, which are helpful for Six Sigma implementation. %ith the help of the literature study, the condition of Six Sigma in manufacturing has been identified. $fter completely understanding the usage of Six Sigma in manufacturing, the research moved to follow research questions & applicability of Six Sigma in software and why software companies choose Six Sigma for process improvement. research questions, different views which specialists have been discussed. n order to answer these provided by software