Six Sigma in IT Processes, IT Services and IT Products: A Fact or a Fad? Six Sigma beyond Manufacturing in IT Processes, IT Services and IT Products

Abstract

Quality is key for any organization to survive, compete and move forward in today's increasingly competitive business environment. Quality is determined by the product users, clients or customers, not by society in general. The aim is not to eliminate mistakes or defect completely, but to minimize the occurrence of defects/mistakes a company can manage and handle. A suitable and flexible quality improvement initiative can help companies formalize a systematic well-rounded approach covering top management all the way to the operations level in handling day-to-day tasks. Six Sigma is one of the upcoming methodologies gaining popularity amongst IT and non-IT organizations. Six Sigma is no longer a methodology solely for the manufacturing sector. An increase of Six Sigma adoption and implementation into the field of IT project management for medium-to-large scale organizations is observed. Nevertheless, the purpose of this paper is to create a general overview and raise awareness among IT organizations and IT specialists (especially in the region of South-East Asia) regarding the feasibility and possibility of adopting and implementing Six Sigma into the field of IT in the three IT business areas: IT Processes, IT Services and IT Products, not limiting to a single sub-trade of IT related businesses.