Using Six Sigma to Achieve CMMI Levels 4 and 5 Rick Hefner, Northrop Grumman [email protected] CMMI Technology Conference & User Group 17-20 November

Using Six Sigma to Achieve CMMI Levels 4 and 5

Using Six Sigma to Achieve CMMI Levels 4 and 5

Rick Hefner, Northrop Grumman [email protected]

CMMI Technology Conference & User Group17-20 November 2003

Copyright 2003 Northrop Grumman Space and Mission Systems Corp. All Rights Reserved.

2

What is Six Sigma?

Six Sigma is a management philosophy based on meeting business objectives by striving for perfection– A disciplined, data-driven methodology for decision making and

process improvement

Six Sigma consists of several integrated methods: – Process Management– Voice of the Customer– Change Management– Tools for Measuring Variation and Change– Business Metrics

The focus is on understanding and reducing variation


3

DMAIC Steps

DEFINESet project goals and objectives

MEASURENarrow range of potential causes and establish baseline capability level

ANALYZEEvaluate data/information for trends, patterns, causal relationships and “root causes”

IMPROVEDevelop, implement and evaluate solutions targeted at identified root causes

CONTROLMake sure problem stays fixed and new methods can be further improved over time

Define

Measure

Analyze

Improve

Control


4

Our Six Sigma Approach

Engaged with External Customers

•Visibility •Participation

Linked with Business Planning and Oversight

•Business planning•Project selection

Enabled byInfrastructure •Training•Tools•Awareness•Database

SPM

Minitab.lnk

Level 2 Self Assessment & Monitoring

Quality Goals

Performance

Objectives

Performance

Metrics

Relative Weight

Benchmark/Baseline

1

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3

4

5

6

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Quality Goals1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Sum=100

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20 50% 100% 20% 10% 3

EXAMPLE OF TOOL USAGE

Level 2 Self Assessment & Monitoring

6

Current Performance - Baseline

10

8

6

4

2

0

(circle current actual performance)

Potential Totals

1000_____ Goal Met

200____ No Gain

0_____ Worse

Improvement

Rating x weight

Previous Total

Current Total

Improvement Rating(0-10)

18 40% 100% 20% 10 2

15 35 80 17 8 1

12 30 60 14 6 0

9 25 40 11 4 0

20 20 8 2 0

3 15 0 5 1 0

80 120 80 150 160 10

480

600

EXAMPLE OF TOOL USAGE

Integrated with Quality Program

•Integrated Training, Awareness, & Policies

•Integrated CMMI & Six Sigma projects

•Integrated tracking and reporting via DB, PRA, etc.

Tied to Employee Performance

•Goals, awards•Job and career paths

Quantitatively Driven•Six Sigma improvements are quantified

Startit! – a NGMS product

Quantitative

Process Capability

Measurement and

Assessment Report

https://sixsigma.dh.trw.com/securesixsigma/


5

Six Sigma Implementation

Starting implementing Six Sigma in 2001

Trained over 3000 Green Belts (80 hours), and over 200 Black Belts (160 hours)

Completed several hundred projects covering all functional areas– Customer involvement and award fee citations

About half of the projects are improving an engineering process


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Causal Analysis and ResolutionOrganizational Innovation and Deployment5 Optimizing

4 Quantitatively Managed

3 Defined

2 Managed

Continuous process improvement

Quantitativemanagement

Processstandardization

Basicprojectmanagement

Quantitative Project ManagementOrganizational Process Performance

Organizational Process FocusOrganizational Process DefinitionOrganizational Training Integrated Project ManagementRisk ManagementDecision Analysis and ResolutionRequirements DevelopmentTechnical SolutionProduct IntegrationVerificationValidation

Requirements Management Project PlanningProject Monitoring and ControlSupplier Agreement Management Measurement and AnalysisProcess and Product Quality AssuranceConfiguration Management

1 Performed

Process AreasLevel Focus

Level 5Focus is on preventing defects and innovation (addressing common causes of variation)

Level 4 Focus is on understanding and managing special causes of variation, at both the project and organizational levels

Capability Maturity Model Integrated


7

Maturity Level 4

Organization Establishes organizational goals Establishes standard process Characterizes process

performance and quality of the standard process

Project Establishes project goals Tailors standard organizational

process to create project’s defined process

Selects critical subprocesses to quantitatively manage

Understanding and managing special causes of variation

RUN CHART

http://lorien.ncl.ac.uk/ming/spc/runchrt1.gif


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Quantitative Management Example (not real data)

Peer Reviews – Understanding the Process

How many errors does the team typically find in reviewing an interface specification?

Useful in evaluating future reviews– Was the review effective?– Was the process different?– Is the product different?


9

Quantitative Management Example (not real data)

Peer Reviews – Improving the Process

Reduce the variation– Train people on the process– Create procedures/checklists– Strengthen process audits

Increase the effectiveness (increase the mean)– Train people– Create checklists– Reduce waste and re-work– Replicate best practices from

other projects


10

New Questions at Level 4

Which subprocesses are predictable at the project level? At the organizational level?

Should different projects control different subprocesses?

What statistical data should the organization collect?

What differences in project subprocesses are permissible? How do they impact the historical data?

Given two projects with two different subprocesses, how do I judge which is better? What does better mean? In what situations would it be better?

Can I trade cost versus quality? How do I explain this trade to my customer?


11

Maturity Level 5

Organization Identifies incremental and

innovative improvements Pilots improvements Deploys and measures

(quantitatively) the results

Project Identifies causes of defects and

other problems Takes actions to prevent them

from occurring in the future

Preventing defects and innovation (addressing common causes of variation)

RUN CHART


12

New Questions at Level 5

What are reasonable organizational process and quality goals?

How radically should I change organizational processes to meet these goals? How fast?

What process changes should I make?

How do I define a defect?

Which defects are unrelated to process? How do I eliminate those from the analysis?


13

Results

Organizational-wide adoption and training of Six Sigma has resulted in a workforce that understands variation– Common language– Common toolset– Common focus on reducing variation

Results have been seen in our rapid achievement of CMMI Levels 4 and 5– 4 of our organizations have now achieved Level 5

Documents

Using Six Sigma to Achieve CMMI Levels 4 and 5 Rick Hefner, Northrop Grumman [email protected] CMMI Technology Conference & User Group 17-20 November