2020 16th IEEE International Colloquium on Signal Processing & its Applications (CSPA 2020), 28-29 Feb.
2020, Langkawi, Malaysia
Six Sigma Practices and Implementation for
Information Technology Project: Key Questions to
Guide Better Understanding and Decision Making
Whee Yen Wong
Department of Internet Engineering University of Nottingham
and Computer Science Semenyih, Malaysia
Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman sfysy2@nottingham.edu.my;
Kajang, Malaysia alyssa.yu2000@gmail.com
wongwy@utar.edu.my;
winnie-wwy@hotmail.com
Abstract—Although the quality of IT projects deliverables
are critically governed by project activities within its quality
improvement processes, it is important for the management
team to understand the core values concepts, goals, suitability,
level of flexibility, cultural changes etc. when in search for a
comprehensive quality improvement methodology (QIM) or
software process improvement (SPI). Six Sigma is well known
as a “metric”, “methodology” and “management system”;
which comprises various methods of data-driven and effort-
driven for achieving process improvement to near perfect
quality. This paper aims to discuss the onboarding of Six
Sigma initiatives and efforts into IT project implementation
which begins with a changes to culture, decisions to learn,
flexibility to change and eventually to evaluate how such
initiative can potentially integrated into quality management
system. Thus, it is important to assess the practicality,
efficiency and appropriateness of such QIM prior investing
time, resources, commitments to avoid project pitfalls and
failure.
Keywords—Six Sigma Practices, Quality Management
System, Software Quality Assurance, Key Questions
I. INTRODUCTION
The dynamic and ever changing customer needs are
daunting software companies in search for a comprehensive,
flexible, better in quality initiative that result in lower
costing, higher return-on-investment and flexible in
continuous improvements. Organizations are swayed away
from “fixed-mode” QMS operation plan that limiting the
growth and expansion in quality improvement management.
For any IT companies seeing themselves as a “learning
organizations”; is expected to be capable of acquiring
exposure, experience, valueable knowledge and rapid
innovation; surviving and thriving in a rapidly changing
environment and demanding customer requirements. Thus,
the Six Sigma initiatives efforts are well-known of
addressing significant problems in product failures or gaps in
delivery world class customer service especially in the voice-
of-customer [1][2][3].
The best way to have deep understanding on Project
Quality begins with major four pillars by Kloppenborg [4]
are: (1) Customer Satisfaction; (2) Process Improvement; (3)
Fact-based management and (4) Empowered Performance.
Project quality is all about the processes and activities that
determine quality policies, objectives and responsibilities so
that the project will satisfy the needs from various project
perspectives. Poor project quality can have profound and
demotivating effects, resulting in re-work, schedule delays,
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Shu Wen Yu
higher cost, frustration, low work morale and customer
dissatisfaction [5]. It is important to ensure that project
quality is maintained consistently from start to finish if the
organization is aiming at operational excellence and
effectiveness.
Maintaining consistent project quality takes commitment,
focus and courage. These credentials will help the project
maintain high levels of quality, as well as continuously
improve the consistency of project quality. Quality products
foster and maintain customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Companies emphasis should focus on perfecting the process
by delivering service/product/process qualification rather
than promoting themselves; ultimately is the establishing its
own quality presence in customers’ perception. This is the
practical way a company building quality reputation and
gaining recognized accreditation quality standard. As such,
project quality is critical to satisfying customers and
retaining customers’ loyalty. It contributes to organization’s
long-term revenue and profitability. Quality is a high valued
asset and goodwill to an organization, which takes years of
collective efforts and continuous quality improvement
initiatives. There are many options available for QIM
adoption and implementation, at times the management team
may be wondering if Six Sigma is the right QIM for adoption
[2]. Therefore, much attention is needed to ensure the
selected QIM is deemed practical, efficient and appropriate
to be adopted within the organizational context.
In general, Software Quality Assurance (SQA) is a
severely underestimated part of software development. SQA
often being neglected where many organizations and
developers put little effort in SQA and testing in particular;
what’s more the adopted QIM is expecting changes in work
culture, standard operation procedures (SOPs), team’s
synergy and team’s motivation. When every team members
has the consistent and correct perception of project quality;
the products, services and process can greatly benefits and
contributes cost reduction in operational cost in long run.
II. DEFINITION OF QUALITY ASSURANCE, QUALITY CONTROL
AND QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
The term “Quality” is subjective and it carries different
metrics in different industries. In manufacturing industry,
operational workers see Quality Assurance as process-
focused and it verifies the outputs of the manufacturing
processes being performed. QA focuses on defect prevention
during the manufacturing process. Whereas Quality Control
is validates and avoids problems; validating the quality of
output as a result of the process implementation. QC focuses
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 2020 16th IEEE International Colloquium on Signal Processing & its Applications (CSPA 2020), 28-29 Feb. 2020, Langkawi, Malaysia
on quality correction of the end-product. In the nutshell of
ISO9000, quality is defines as “part of quality management
focused on providing confidence that quality requirements
will be fulfilled".
The terms “Quality Assurance (QA)” and “Quality
Control (QC)” are tightly lincked and often been mistakenly
used interchangeably. Though these two terms are related to
each other but both are different and unique concepts. Both
are two credentials of quality management. According to
ISO [6] and Wong [7], “While some quality assurance and
quality control activities are interrelated, the two are defined
differently. Typically, QA activities and responsibilities
cover virtually all of the quality system in one fashion or
another, while QC is a subset of the QA activities. Also,
elements in the quality system might not be specifically
covered by QA/QC activities and responsibilities but may
involve QA and QC”. The above statement is summarized
into Figure 1.
Quality System
Quality Assurance
Quality Control
Fig. 1. Relationship of Quality Control, Quality Assurance and Quality
Systems [6]
According to Wong [8], “QA refers to the planned and
systematic activities implemented in a quality system so that
the quality requirements for any products/services will be
fulfilled. It is the systematic measurement, comparing with a
standard, monitoring of the processes and an associated
operational loop (two-ways) that confers error prevention.
QC is an observation technique and activity used to fulfill
requirements for quality. In the field of IT, QC emphasizes
testing of products to uncover/reduce defects/variations and
reporting to the project team who make the decision to allow
or deny product release; whereas QA attempts to improve
and stabilize production (normally associated with processes)
to avoid, or at least minimize, issues which led to the
defect(s)/variation(s) in the first place.”
According to [5][9], “Quality Systems (QS) is an
aggregation of organizational activities, incentives, plans,
policies, procedures, processes, resources, responsibilities
and infrastructure required in formulating and implementing
the management of quality. A quality system is all about an
organization goes about running its business to achieve it
goals. It is often documented and based around a quality
manual which that defines and embodies the system. A
quality system is formally described as 'the organizational
structure, responsibilities, procedures, processes and
resources for implementing the management of quality'. Said
in a simpler way, a quality system concerns the way an
enterprise goes about running its business to achieve its goals
(effectively or otherwise!). The quality system would usually
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be documented and is often based around a quality manual
that defines and embodies the system. Having a certified QS
can inspire credibility in the eyes of customers and supplies
as well as fostering customers loyalty and helping the
organization to run more efficiently.”
III. LITERATURE REVIEW
In the past two decades, the adoption and implementation
of Six Sigma into IT-related project activities have drawn
great attentions from both the industry and academic sector.
According to the survey result by Wong [10][11], there
exists an obvious paradigm shift toward “software quality
control” from “software quality assurance” in the IT industry
by adopting Six Sigma as part of the operational excellence
in meeting its business goals. The QIM evolution in the IT
industry places great emphasis on tracking, tackling and
monitoing potential issues which cause software failures (i.e.
variance, inconsistency, bug, error, incident anomoly etc);
rather than solely focus on pre-determined or pre-agreeable
acceptable defect level. This conceptual understanding of
QA and QC among the project team members are critical for
the long-term continuous improvement especially fostering
higher maturity level in the field of project management.
The evolving of end-users and customers needs and
expectations especially as a result of technology exposure
and increasing IT knowledge, many SMEs/SMIs are
exploring quantitative and qualitative metrics to ensure
continuous improvements to stay competent among the
competitors. As such, it is important to have a closer look
and understanding of what Six Sigma can offer as an QIM in
the IT Project Management.
In general, the most commonly adopted Six Sigma
methodology framework is “Six Sigma DMAIC” and
“Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)”. Six Sigma DMAIC
(Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control) requires great
effort in indepth analysis at each phase and is designed to
find flaws or inefficiencies especially in output defects.
DMAIC is a statistical-driven (i.e. numerical and quantitative
analysis) that emphasis discernment and implementation of
quality measurement metrics. It is a methodlogy used for
exisitng proceses to fix under-performing processes [12].
Whereas DFSS has its focused on critically on designing
new process(s) and it is normally apply to new product
developments [13][14]. The objective of DFSS is to utilize
the organization’s capability during the planned development
process(s) for long term survival [15].
For the past one decade, Six Sigma has gained
management trust for its capability of better understanding of
changing and handling of customer requirements, improving
of software quality and software delivery, reducing on
project development cost as well as enhacing in competition
position among the competitors. However, Six Sigma
implementations and Six Sigma professionals are interlink to
each other. Six Sigma professionals are the key success
factor to any six sigma implementations. Six Sigma
professionals in the belt-hierarchy system entices crucial
roles and responsibilities; how Six Sigma benefits them as
invidual career advancement as well as the organization to
stay competent among the competitors drilling into root-
csuse-analysis instead of norm preliminary analaysis. Most
importantly, these certified Six Sigma Professionals set the
direction for deploying projects, ensuring projects are
 2020 16th IEEE International Colloquium on Signal Processing & its Applications (CSPA 2020), 28-29 Feb. 2020, Langkawi, Malaysia
suceed, add value and fit within the organizational plan and
direction [16].
IV. METHODOLOGY
This research outcomes are the collective information
and data from three successful six sigma case companies in
the areas of IT Products, IT Processes and IT Services in the
Malaysian IT industry. These three case companies
undergone several rounds of challenge and rigid six sigma
DMAIC phases striving to define critical and vital metric
indicators as a mean of “attributes predictions” of software
project management entities to the organization. This is to
ensure the organization’s human and task forces are geared
towards future challenges especially striving for competency
and awareness in software change control management. The
project duration for these three case studies are ranging from
six months to one and half years; with the main objective of
adopting and/or integrating Six Sigma methodology into
existing informal and/or formal QIM as a mean of
continuous improvement towards reduction of company
costing and speed of return-on-investment.
V. ASSESSMENT OF SIX SIGMA PRACTICES
Six Sigma is a business methodology and practices which
is driven by data and statistical analysis; it is a way to
minimize mistakes and maximize value in from
manufacturing to non-manufacturing segment (i.e. software
and technology environments). There are many
misconceptions that Six Sigma can provide “quick fix” and
“realistic results”. Six Sigma is more than just a QIM for
manufacturing; it is also a project management methodology
[17]. Most importantly, regardless of any industry, every
organizations require to develop efficient processess to
complete projects, stay focus and stay relevant. Most project
managers might feel respective organization do not fit with a
six sigma framework; this is where most project managers
under-estimate the benefits from the team boost in Six Sigma
team’s synergy, motivation and culture. One of the strongest
strength of Six Sigma is the ability to find and address weak-
points (i.e. root-cause analysis) within a process which
hinder effieciency or effectiveness by visualizing how
products, services and processess transforms from its initial
conceptial idea to end users.
Fig. 2. Key Questions to Six Sigma Implementation
Nobody like changes, especially changes in IT project
management which resultant in changes of project schedule,
scope creep as well as uncontrollable cost overrun with
demanding customers. Six Sigma deals with data and data
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empowers one to make objective decisions and find best
solution or recommendation. All six sigma analysis are
backup with quantitative data and statistical tools and
techniques; a rigorous review of process improvement with
strict adherence to pool of data [18]. As such, the criteria and
decisions to adopt and tailor Six Sigma approach to business
operational routines are discussed in following section as
“key broad questions and decisions”. Figure 2 provides an
overview of key broad questions and decisions for
consideration prior to Six Sigma implementation in the IT
project management.
VI. KEY BROAD QUESTIONS AND DECISIONS TO SIX SIGMA
IMPLEMENTATION
A. Q1: Is the Data (Present and History) Available?
The key concept of Six Sigma is “management by fact”
which extended the metrics measurements from QA to QC
[19]. Six Sigma methodology rests on pool of statistical data
and data empowers the project managers to make objective
decisions in supporting of performance and production
initiatives. This approach addresses detailed statistical-based
analysis as means of continuous measurements [16].
Although integration of Six Sigma strategies into IT project
management context has yet received attention in project
management conference and publications; the successful
stories of Six Sigma has been well received among the
project managers either formally or informally [5].
One of the core successful six sigma approach is
conducting an effective root-cause analaysis based on data
analytics. As such, in the presence of existing data versus the
history data; the statistical approach of six sigma to problem
solving benefits the organizations where process are make
simpler, more effective and efficient [1]. The modern
business marketplace is a data-driven environment. The role
of data is to empower business leaders to make decisions
based on facts, trends and statistical numbers. First thing
first when an organization is considering to adopt Six Sigma
approach is to have data made available for statistical
processing. Sources of data can be made from: (1)
Processing of existing data to extract the relevant and useful
infomration for further analysis or computation; (2)
Collection of appropriate data from various reliable sources
and (3) Compilation of history data from past archieved
documents, forms etc.
In short, Six Sigma methodology provides a powerful
toolbox covering various techniques, methods, diagrams,
charts etc. in conducting continuous improvement initiatives
to enabling quality gains for the organizations in long term.
In order to adopt Six Sigma practices into IT project
implementation, it is crucial to establish the “key
measurement metric(s)” while gauging business performance
for operational excellence or vice versa. These key
measurement metric(s) can be defined in any forms of
subjective metrics; i.e. tangible (IT Products) or intangible
(IT Services and IT Processes). Most importantly is the
defined measurement metric(s) has available past/history and
present data for sigma calculation and benchmarking.
In any case if the present and past data for such defined
measurement matric(s) are not available, more effort is
needed in compiling more rounds of benchmarking
assessment(s) in order to compute a realistic sigma level for
metric(s) benchmarking.
 2020 16th IEEE International Colloquium on Signal Processing & its Applications (CSPA 2020), 28-29 Feb. 2020, Langkawi, Malaysia
B. Q2: Any High-Potential Staff as Key Role Team
Members?
From the human perspective of Six Sigma
implementation, the Six Sigma belt system helps team
members unite and acquaint to better understand one
responsibility and coordinates their work towards project
successful implementation. The belt system gives individual
team members different levels of authority based on
respective training achievement and experience. In addition,
the belt-system training makes one ready for leadership
roles as a “change agent” within the organization. Many
industries such as healthcare, manufacturing and IT
industries have gravitated towards Six Sigma framework.
The chronological order of six sigma belt certification are
White-Belt, Yellow-Belt, Green-Belt, Black-Belt and
Master Black-Belt. Black-Belt is responsible to problem-
solving projects; whereas the rest will conduct projects and
implement improvements.
To-date, all IT organizations aim to optimally utilize the
value of existing available fulltime employees (FTEs)
without sacrificing commitment towards the customers.
Staff with sound track records in IT project management
will be shortlisted as the “high-potential” staff attending
series of six sigma belt-system training. These high-
potential staff that possess Six Sigma belts training and
certification are well armed to occupy leadership positions
within the organization taking the leadership role in
advancing QIM and SQA to the next level. Although Black-
Belt is the core engine that propel Six Sigma initiatives,
choosing the right person to be trained for Black-Belt is
essential to project success [20]. In preparation of high-
potential staff for Six Sigma credentials, the organizations
will be getting more than what they imagine for [21]. Other
than the fundamental knowledge of software change control
within the quality management system; he/she is the
“change agent” that brings change(s) to the company for a
better tomorrow.
It has always been challenging when it comes to in
search of high-potential candidate(s) to kick-start a Six
Sigma project within the organization or department or
business unit. Getting the right candidate(s) is crucial and
critical ensuring the six sigma project provides the intended
benefits as planned. Any slack in the selection process may
lead to slow progress and incomplete result in the
implementation phase; which may further jeopardize team
motivation and team efforts for next round of six sigma
projects.
Taking into consideration from the point of IT project
management, the best candidate as the key role in six sigma
project may not be the organization leaders but rather
someone with combination of hard skills (i.e. proficient in
statistical and analytical) and soft skills (i.e. skillful in
people management with leadership ability). The preferable
key role candidate(s) is within the project team (not an
outsider) who are familiar with the quality management
system of the organization.
Following the general guideline on the traits for high-
potential candidate as the key role for six sigma project: (1)
High level of aptitude skills and technical skills in six sigma
implementation, (2) Capability and Ability to influence team
members positively in implementing chance, (3) A leader
with business acumen knowledge who understands current
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market environment and drive the project accordingly, (4)
Strong Problem-Solving Skill especially in cause-and-effect
thinking and analysis, (5) Ability to train or mentor other
team members and (6) Business functional competencies
within an organization understanding how functions
influence the organization as a whole.
C. Q3: Bottleneck on Challenging Processes?
There are times and occurences where same issue(s),
problem(s) or fault(s) which has been solved and rectified in
previous release or past release resurfaced recently in latest
release. This triggers customers’ quality perception on
respective IT products or IT services. This so-call “re-work”
resultant in low team morale, low motivation and low team
synergy. In worst scenario and unexpected circumstances,
the rework has to be fit into existing schedule which causes
delay to schedule and cost overrun. Most importantly, no one
ever ask or bother why are the “same” incidents happen n-
times and it is still happening despite proper quality
management system is in place.
Process bottlenecks are the main reason why a project get
delayed, budget overrun and the entire process become
unpredictable and uncontrollable. In most cases, instead of
project managers fighting for the symptoms, project
managers needs a simple process bottleneck analysis as well
as a set of prevention measures. Six Sigma methodology
allows project managers to establish a predictable flow and
put the project status in control.
Despite compulsory lesson-learned meeting enforcement
for each software and patch releases, the deliverables of such
meeting are seen as “leaning on paper” where team members
do not take lesson-learned follow-up seriously as a mean of
self-imporvement or team-improvement. As such, urgent
attendtion should be given immediately to QC-oriented QIM
(i.e. Six Sigma) to develop root-cause-focused solutions as a
result of repeated non-conformances. Thus, it is critical to
raise awareness among team members on focused-
assessments towards operational improvement and
excellence; a shift toward “validation” approach rather than
“verification” approach.
D. Q4: Receive Full Support from Management Team?
One of the main challenges undermining software
quality management is the lacking of support, lacking of
participation, limited training provided and limited
provision of resources from the top management. The
benefits of meeting compliance requirements far outweigh
the cost of acquiring these resources. Much support and
effort acknowledgment from the top management, middle
management and first line management for successful QIM
implementation at various level. In nutshell, upper level and
top management involvement is necessary to integrate
quality into business system.
A successful six sigma project implementation is the
team effort from the management team, middle management
team, quality assurance team and project teams. Each team
has its roles and responsibilities within the project life cycle.
Particularly for the management team; they are expected to
handle initiation of management level discussion dedicated
to special six sigma project especially in dealing with severe
quality failures, threats to project completions due to staff
shortage, managerial crises etc.
 2020 16th IEEE International Colloquium on Signal Processing & its Applications (CSPA 2020), 28-29 Feb. 2020, Langkawi, Malaysia
Undeniable, six sigma generally comprehends for
corporate-wide performance improvement through continual
reconfiguration, a methodology for dramatic improvement,
employee operations and innovation resulting in best
products and services, effective and efficient in operational
routines. In order to achieve company-wide commitment in
six sigma implementation, all it has is to have vision for Six
Sigma starts from top-down where top management and
business leaders from cross-functional units to top-down
hierarchical management. Most importantly, a six sigma
vision does not have to encompass the entire company; the
vision can be applied on a smaller scale to stay focus and
motivate a Sigma team. Generally, Six Sigma vision of
business leadership creates a closed-looped system where
support and encouragement from top- down increases the
chances of Six Sigma implementation as companywide
directives, forces.
E. Q5: Output Performance Variation Discrepancies:
Today Against Target Set?
Every project is unique. Every project has its defined
specification, deliverable(s), end point(s), dedicated
resources etc. This group of unique credentials is indeed a
challenge to an organization where respective project has its
own requirements and it varies between projects. As such, a
fixed-mode or “one fits all” of QMS plan deemed unlikely
and not possible. The aggressive expansion and rise of IT
industry as a result of 4th Industry Revolution has push the
need of a flexible-system capabilities with continuous
process improvement model to cope with demanding end-
users.
It is a common practice to periodically review, revise
and approve output performance variation(s) to benchmark
and reflect ever rising dynamic demand and expectation
from end-users and customers. As such, QIM, QM and
QMS work hand-in-hand strategizing a flexible plan for all
projects.
F. Q6: Improvement: Closer to Perfection?
Despite much effort and resources are put into QIM
adoption and implementation, it is always a wrong
perception from the management team striving and pushing
the project teams meeting the ceiling height of ı within
organization’s operational excellence. The fundamental
objective of Six Sigma as a measurement-based strategy
focuses on process improvement, variation reduction and
incremental improvement. It does not mean that only
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practices. In nutshell, over emphasis in meeting the upper
sigma level during the implementation stage will kill team’s
synergy and team’s motivation towards achieving
collaborative results from the combination of talented and
capable team members.
It is a norm for the IT industry operating between three to
four sigma and yet benefited tremendously from six sigma
implementation such as [22]: (1) Growth in market share; (2)
Improve in Productivity; (3) Reduce in Overall Operational
Cost; (4) Better Retention is Customer; (5) Improve in
Overall Cycle Time; (6) Positive Cultural Change etc. As
such, process improvement is an incremental and continuos
task force which takes time (project cycles) and effort to
progress from one sigma level to another. Therfore, Six
Sigma is an upcoming QIM in the software industry that
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should not be overlooked especially in the context of quality
control in tacking root-cause of any problems.
VII. CONCLUSION
It is a always a bad idea jumping into any QIM adoption
decision without detailed understanding and assessment of
such QIM. The SIX(6) key questions provides necessary
insights, guidelines and benchmarking to IT organizations on
the “overall big picture” to quantify start-up decision prior
adopting Six Sigma practices into its’ quality management
system. Though these six key questions may seem general
and common for organizations already have QIM
implemented (i.e. ISO and ITIL) for years; special attention
and in-depth analysis and understanding indeed is a MUST
prior investing resources and money into six sigma
methodology. In nutshell, once can conclude that the SIX(6)
key questions are the key success factors for six sigma
implementation. This paper aims to develop the high-level
“mapping” and demonstrating how IT organizations with and
without formal/informal QIM can be integrated and
implemented Six Sigma practices to close the gap of
variation between QA and QC. The key questions are the
elements that are interrelated and provide guidelines on how
to make start-up decision prior expanding current QIM to
incorporating Six Sigma practices as part of the operational
mechanism.
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