Six Sigma and Software Development Process: DMAIC Improvements

Six sigma increases quality by reducing process variability and aligning customer's expectations, providing high financial returns. First applied in manufacturing companies, it also becomes very effective on finance, management and service in general, including software development. DMAIC (define-measure-analyze-improve-control) has been widely used as the method for six sigma implementation projects in manufacturing, once its procedures are based on the well known PDCA (plan-do-check-act) principles. However, it does not fulfill appropriately all software development requirements, which leads to researches for introducing new practices in the DMAIC method or developing other methods and techniques. Based on a research performed through a multiple cases study, it is possible to suggest improvements in the DMAIC method. Some of the considered issues are: cost evaluation, time and customer satisfaction impact on business; improvement processes verification; organizational standardization and learning achieved from six sigma projects. The main result is a proposal of a specific roadmap for six sigma projects application in software development process improvement, which includes the treatment of the aspects found