CMMI and Six Sigma-Relationship & Integration

Abstract

Organizations that endeavor to improve often find themselves juggling many solutions: maturity models, EIA standards, acquisition standards, ISO standards, measurement best practices, codified lifecycle processes such as Team Software ProcessSM (TSPSM), software development principles, and more. All improvement initiatives selected by an organization should be implemented in an integrated fashion, not as layered or stovepiped efforts.And the result should be a set of organizational processes, used by everyone- from developer to software engineering process group (SEPG)1 member to manager-that reflect the features of the improvement initiatives chosen. This paper focuses on two popular improvement initiatives: CMMI and Six Sigma, and their relationships. As CMMI has become more widely institutionalized, Six Sigma has made its way into engineering disciplines.