#PWWCBA Live: Tools, Techniques & Trends

I started the first afternoon of track sessions at ProjectWorld in "Six Sigma and the Software Development Life Cycle – a Match Made in Heaven, Maybe." Speaker Rebecca Burgess started off by defining the SDLC and then pointing out it's weaknesses (often tactical, short-term, poor requirements definition and may end with deployment) and then showing ways that Six Sigma can help fill this shortcomings.

Six Sigma for the Software Development Life Cycle is looking to accomplish "Strategic Success" - actual long term, implemented change. To do this, one should begin by documenting the default success criteria, gathering requirements from various sources (the voice of the customer, voice of the data, voice of the business & IT and looking at best practices from outside the company), performing comparative analysis and controlling business processes (using SIPOC & Swimlanes for example).

Up next was "Divide and Conquer: Bridging the Gap Between Scope and Requirements Managements with CLM Tools" with Cherifa Mansoura, PhD, Solution Architect, IBM


Mansoura started the session by asking, are scope and requirements the same? Scope is the work that needs to be accomplished on the project (the product scope is the set of features that need to be developed on a product). Requirements are either derived from user needs or stated in a document such as a contract or standard specifications. The scope elements are NOT ONLY the requirements.

Every project must establish it's scope: what's in, what's out. Think of your scope as a box that contains both your requirements and other elements (change requests, risk, etc.) The container manages all of the work items inside the box.

Still to come this afternoon is our book signing with Ellen Gottesdiener and another track after the break.

Michelle LeBlanc is a Social Media Strategist at IIR USA and the voice behind the @Project_World twitter. She may be reached at mleblanc@iirusa.com