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