six sigma in software Industries
The approch and acceptance of six sigma benifit interms of cost saving and process improvements in software companies have limited , as compared to manufacturing sectors , which targets dramatic or breakthrough improvements at a very short period of time,
Resource utilization , repitative , and regular data generation ability on similar platform ..help to apply DMAIC principle with sucess results.
To successfully perform quality, the ability of the persons performing the task or activity ,the effectiveness of the processes that are to be followed in performing the task or activity.
Six Sigma is applicable for operations when activities are identical and repeated, as in manufacturing, and not for projects, which have a start and end date and which produce unique products, results, or services
Comparation between the two sector factors of considerations
1 Operations are identical
Operations may be similar across projects but aren’t identical
2 Same set of processes for each operation
Processes may be different for different projects, though a few processes may be common across projects
3 The variation of the abilities of the worker to perform is minimal i.e. Most of them perform at the same level of effectiveness
The variation of the abilities of the developers to perform is wide i.e. the level of performance is different among the developers
It is clear that I feel that personal ability contributes more to success than process in software development; the opposite seems true in manufacturing.
In the software industry, software life cycle covers customer requirement analysis, impact analysis , design, coding, testing, integration , validation and deployment, more over project size may be small or big , So Project improvements will not be consistently successful across projects.
In manufacturing, workers perform the same operations again and again, and hence an improvement made in a process is applicable throughout the operations phase. Six Sigma is generally not applicable to development.
Projects produce unique products, services, or results, whereas operations produce the same product many times, and this is one important reason that the effectiveness of processes has a greater effect in manufacturing.
The “ability” factor of the employees in each of these industries: If you look at a software-development project even though your team consists of members possessing the same amount of experience—say all of them have TEN years experience, same skill sets and same kind of training—there still will be a huge variation in their performance even when they work on similar activities. For example, to fix a bug, developer X takes one hour, developer Y takes two hours, and developer Z may take many hours. Though all three possess the same level of skill, education, and training, such variation is common in the software industry , and this variation will have a great effect on the success of the project.
In manufacturing, the ability of the workers doesn’t have as much effect because operations don’t involve much innovation or head scratching. I would like to emphasize that innovation and the creation of the processes in manufacturing are developed and implemented by a different set of people, such as engineers, who don’t belong to operations. Manufacturing employees need simply to follow the processes strictly. With proper training, it’s possible to bring the ability of the workers to almost the same level, with only slight differences. Hence the ability factor of the worker will have a smaller effect on the success of the project in manufacturing.
Normally in manufacturing, most operations are performed by various tools and machines that are monitored by workers. This isn’t the case in software-development projects, where a person has to make use of his or her ability to complete the task.
Improvements in the abilities of the people working on a project can bring significant benefits for a company, so it’s important for software firms to put emphasis on improving the abilities of the individuals and on retaining their top talent, while they make investments in process improvements.
To summarize, because software-development is person-dependent and the manufacturing industry is process-dependent, and because Six Sigma is more process oriented, Six Sigma will have much less impact on software development than it does on manufacturing.
