Personal Six Sigma: Adapting Six Sigma to professional practice

This paper adapts the tools and thought processes of Six Sigma to the personal practice of software engineering and software quality. Many information technology organizations are adopting Six Sigma practices as part of larger organizational quality initiatives. Software engineers and software quality professionals in these organizations can find it difficult to adapt Six Sigma techniques to their own professional practice because the emphasis of the organizational initiative is on organization-wide and project-level implementation. Individuals working in organizations that are not adopting Six Sigma can feel completely overlooked by the Six Sigma movement. This paper focuses on learning and adapting Six Sigma techniques at a personal level, incorporating these techniques and tools into one's professional practice regardless of whether or not Six Sigma is being implemented at the organizational level.