Green Belt project in IT
In the software industry, rework is often referred to as revisiting or redoing a work that has already been deployed. This is a known issue in this industry, and can happen due to various reasons. One of the major factors is not understanding the client requirements completely. Successful implementations of Green Belt projects in IT have proved that it is essential to document the requirements of the client. Change requests should be raised wherever necessary and they should be approved and verified thoroughly.
Another major area of concern is assignment of varied areas of work to a single developer. While this might seem to be a measure to cut the monotony, in the long run, this does affect the deliverable, and increases the resolution time and rework.
The DMAIC methodology helped solve the issue of expensive rework time and effort for a software development team of a leading environmental services company. When the actual time taken to resolve the tickets were measured, it was found that most of the projects were taking much longer than expected and there was a huge build up and thus a backlog. The average resolution time was as many as 34 days.
Cause-and-effect matrix helped point out that unclear requirements and unplanned assignments lead to maximum rework. To analyze the projects, tools such as the Pareto chart, the 5-Whys tool were used. These elucidated the need for proper user training, defects in web pages, and variance from customer expectations when it came to resolution of work items.
The Green Belt project in IT involved all the related teams, and came up with an improvement solution. DMAIC helped to come up with a documented mechanism that would reduce the software resolution time and rework to a significant number. Assigning similar work to the team reduced the build cycle by 50%. The overall savings for the Admin tool increased by about 25%, and that of the Finance-related tool by as high as 75%. The results were significant as the development team was able to gather the requirements, design and test the code in a single development cycle.
See full story on isixsigma.com