Software Design for Six Sigma: A Roadmap for Excellence

Chapter 14. SOFTWARE DESIGN FOR X

INTRODUCTION

We will focus on vital few members of the DFX family. The letter "X" in software Design for X-ability (DFX) is made up of two parts: software processes (x) and performance measure (ability) (i.e., X = x + abilty such as test – ability, reliability, etc.). They parallel design for manufacturability, design for inspectability, design for environmentablity, design for recycl-ability, and so on in hardware Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) (Yang & El-Haik, 2003). Many software DFSS teams find that the concepts, tools, and approaches discussed in hardware are useful analogies in many ways serving as eye openers by stimulating out-of-the-box thinking.

The Black Belt continually should revise the DFSS team membership to reflect the concurrent design, which means team members are key, equal team members. DFX techniques are part of detail design and are ideal approaches to improve life-cycle cost^[142] and quality, increase design flexibility, and increase efficiency and productivity. Benefits usually are pinned as competitiveness measures, improved decision making, and enhanced software development and operational efficiency. Software DFX focuses on vital business elements of software engineering maximizing the use of limited resources available to the DFSS team.

The DFX family of tools collect and present facts about both the design entity and its production processes, analyze all relationships between them, measure the critical-to-quality (CTQs) of ...