Software Quality Assurance

LEAN SIX SIGMA FOR Software Quality ASSURANCE

Introduction:

The success of Six Sigma in manufacturing in the past decade has encouraged moves to explore Six Sigma applications to other domains, such as the Software Industry, for performance improvement.  Six Sigma uses the following three principles:

1. Focus on customers

2. Process orientation and

3. Leadership based on metrics. 

Applying Six Sigma to software development makes Software Projects transparent to both management and customers. Transparency requires an important cultural change. As a result, after transparency is achieved, completing accurate project estimations while meeting both deadlines and customer requirements becomes a lot easier. Owing to the uniqueness of software processes, there have been disagreements as to whether Six Sigma should be adopted in Software Design processes.

Can Lean Six Sigma provide adequate software process improvement support? Six Sigma places primary importance on customers, business results and statistical analysis while Lean principles aim to uncover and reduce waste and improve efficiencies. Lean also aims to make discoveries and targeted improvements. The implementation of both methodologies, Six Sigma and Lean, combining their techniques leverage the best in both models.  Together, applied as Lean Six Sigma, they address and change similar management and technical staff behaviors. The organizational change management approach with both techniques is quicker and less costly than a sequential approach and provides more benefits than an “Either / Or” approach.

Six Sigma

       Six sigma means six standard deviations. A standard deviation is a parameter which characterizes a set of measurements, just as the average can characterize such a set. One standard deviation is a value such that roughly two-thirds of all values in a set fall within the range from one standard deviation below average to one standard deviation above average. Sets of values which can be characterized by the average and standard deviation may be modeled by the normal distribution, also know as the “bell-shaped curve”. With a larger coefficient for sigma (1 sigma, 2 sigma, … , 6 sigma) more of the set is included, corresponding to a larger area under the bell-shaped curve

 Six Sigma for Software Quality Assurance

             Nevertheless, there were only occasionally attempts to implement Six Sigma for software. Applying Six Sigma to software development makes product development and other projects transparent to both management and customers. However, transparency requires an important cultural change. We know from experience that bad communication is a major reason why projects fail, and software projects in particular. We expect from better transparency that meeting both deadlines and customer requirements becomes easier. The major problem with early Six Sigma attempts was that there was no connection of Software Metrics to economic success[4]. Counting mistakes and defects is not a clear indication if the software project is going to be successful [5]. Other metrics like time-to-market and user friendliness are much more important in many application areas. Sometimes, reliability is of essence, but not always. There is no software metrics that serves all. It depends what kind of software we are developing or installing. Finding good metrics for software development or deployment is a major task in itself.

            Software Six Sigma is an overall strategy to accelerate and to sustain continuous improvements in the Software Development Process and in Software Product quality.  It is based on the application of statistical tools to the process and product metrics that characterize a stable software development process.  Software Six Sigma enables quantitative management of product quality.  This in turn:

• speeds up integration and test
• allows delivery of very high quality product (very few latent defects)
• improves the repeatability and predictability of the entire software development process.

            Software Six Sigma involves the application of Statistical Process Control (SPC) and related techniques to the production of Software Requirements, architecture, modules, and test cases. These statistical techniques are collectively known as the six sigma tool kit. Software Six Sigma’s attributes are:

• trustworthy metric data
• accurate planning based on historical data
• use of statistical tools for real time analysis and decision support
• quantifiable Software Process Improvement cost and benefits
• predictably high product quality

            Software Six Sigma enables more effective program management.  Six Sigma techniques provide metrics to make timely “fact based” management decisions. The quality of the project tracking data is so high that problems can frequently be anticipated well in advance of their occurrence and can often be mitigated or avoided entirely.

  We can make Six Sigma work for Software Quality Assurance using a

DMADV Framework

l      Define

l      Measure

l      Analyze

l      Design

l      Verify

Conclusion 

Software today is responsible for most of the added value in products, and must be blamed for many of its failures. Even if the iron hook breaks, it may be the software embedded in the measurement instrument to blame for not having detected it in time. When in Germany the high speed intercity express train crashed into an overpass, it was software that didn’t detect the broken wheel ring well before the accident. Mobile networks are suffering from not being able to provide interconnection to the Internet and interoperability between their own services. It is the software that fails.

Six Sigma metrics for software development allows assessing the risks connected with ICT. The implication of such ability is far reaching. The immediate benefit we get from any step towards Six Sigma for Software is that the cost of ICT can be dramatically reduced. Studies done in certain areas like e-Governance suggest savings of up to 75% of today’s cost level; experiences with the progress tracking metrics in particular support that finding. This will not only change the ICT industry but also impact all others that depend from it.

About the Author

Dr.R.Uma Rani M.C.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.,

Associate Professor of Computer Science,

Sri Sarada College for Women,

Salem,

Tamil Nadu,

India

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