A Six Sigma Framework for Software Process Improvements and its Implementation

This paper presents a Software Six Sigma framework for process improvement specifically targeted for use in the software industry. The paper claims that although Six Sigma has been adopted by many software development organizations, a standard Six Sigma framework is still needed to provide standard process and analysis tools for Six Sigma project management, and to help in integrating with other SPI tools and approaches such as PSP/TSP and CMMI. The paper also states that adopting Six Sigma in the software industry is different from using it in the manufacturing industry, and this has provided the motivation for developing Software Six Sigma which focuses on the adoption of Six Sigma to improve software development processes. The conceptual model for Software Six Sigma is presented and a description is given of a web-based implementation of the framework called the ’Six Sigma Project Management Tool’ (SSPMT). The paper provides a step-by-step description of how to execute a project using this tool and discusses the architecture, integration and implementation of this tool. The differences between Six Sigma projects and typical software projects are also discussed. In the conclusion the authors state that the SSPMT software based on the framework is still under development.