Software Design for Six Sigma: A Roadmap for Excellence

Chapter 13. AXIOMATIC DESIGN IN SOFTWARE DESIGN FOR SIX SIGMA (DFSS)

INTRODUCTION

Software permeates in every corner of our daily life. Software and computers are playing central roles in all industries and modern life technologies. In manufacturing, software controls manufacturing equipment, manufacturing systems, and the operation of the manufacturing enterprise. At the same time, the development of software can be the bottleneck in the development of machines and systems because current industrial software development is full of uncertainties, especially when new products are designed. Software is designed and implemented by making prototypes based on the experience of software engineers. Consequently, they require extensive "debugging"—a process of correcting mistakes made during the software development process. It costs unnecessary time and money beyond the original estimate (Pressman, 1997). The current situation is caused by the lack of fundamental principles and methodologies for software design, although various methodologies have been proposed.

In current software development practices, both the importance and the high cost of software are well recognized. The high cost is associated with the long software development and debugging time, the need for maintenance, and uncertain reliability. It is a labor-intensive business that is in need of a systematic software development approach that ensures high quality, productivity, and reliability of software systems a priori. The ...