Six sigma quality management and software development [closed]

Question

Is it possible to use Six Sigma Quality Management with Software Development Processes?

What's your experience on that?

If you're using an Agile method like Scrum or XP, isn't Six Sigma too bureaucratic?

I'm talking about quality management on software development as a whole, since requirements gathering until deployoment and operations, and not only the construction phase (which tools like TDD and unit testing are more or less already established as best practices).

Answer 1

Six Sigma works well with reproducible processes. By that, I mean pure process that consistently produces (or is supposed to produce) the same output. Given that software development rarely produces the same output, SS is not really applicable, IMO. This is because software development is more a practice than a process.

That being said, it doesn't hurt to read about it and try to see what top-level ideas can be put into software development...

Answer 2

If I understand it correctly, six sigma depends on having meaningful, measurable metrics. What will yours be? KLOC? Classes checked into your archive? Agile velocity?

Six sigma works great on shop floors, but I don't believe that software development is sufficiently "widget-like" to lend itself to such an approach.