Customer Reviews

Six Sigma for Technical Processes: An Overview for R&D Executives, Technical Leaders, and Engineering Managers

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Having read a fair number of business books over the years, I am somewhat aware of Six Sigma concepts. But as a software developer, it's never been anything I was directly involved with in terms of process. When I saw the book Six Sigma for Technical Processes: An Overview for R&D Executives, Technical Leaders, and Engineering Managers by Clyde M. Creveling, I thought that I might be able to learn more about Six Sigma for my technical pursuits. Unfortunately, I don't think I was the intended audience. The book's not bad, it's just that I didn't have the prerequisite knowledge to tackle it.

Contents: Introduction to Six Sigma for Technical Processes; Scorecards for Risk Management in Technical Processes; Project Management in Technical Processes; Strategic Product and Technology Portfolio Renewal Process; Strategic Research and Technology Development Process; Tactical Product Commercialization Process; Fast Track Commercialization; Operational Post-Launch Engineering Support Processes; Future Trends in Six Sigma and Technical Processes; Glossary; Index

The Six Sigma program is most commonly associated with manufacturing entities that want to lower defects, increase quality, and reduce manufacturing time. Through a very rigorous and defined process, the manufacturing process is tracked, measured, and adjusted to get the desired results. Very formal, but successful if you're willing to commit to it. Six Sigma for Technical Processes covers the application of the process to research and development, as well as the task of bringing new products to market. Rather than just building something that "seems" to be cool or is based on the hunch of some senior executive, Six Sigma processes are set in place to review each product idea from inception to launch. These processes assess risk, ability to produce, customer needs, and a host of other variables that can make or break your product. Six Sigma doesn't substitute for the creativity in coming up with ideas (although there are processes for generating potential products), but it systematically evaluates the ones you do have in order to focus efforts on ideas that have the best chance for success.

The book assumes a comprehensive understanding of Six Sigma concepts before you start reading. The introduction isn't so much "what's Six Sigma" as it is "how does Six Sigma fit into technical design and research". Acronyms abound throughout the book, and you're best off already knowing what they mean. Otherwise, you will get lost pretty quickly. And if you're not familiar with things like Monte Carlo simulations and analysis of means/variances, you won't get up to speed here. That background is assumed. As such, this book is really intended for the Six Sigma practitioner who is ready to apply the program to more than just the manufacturing arena.

If you fit the right criteria, I can see where this book would give you everything you'd need to move in the desired direction. It's just that I didn't fit that criteria... :)

First my background: I am relatively new (but not entirely new) to Six Sigma and lean methodologies. I am well-versed in a number of different processes related to software development and related activities. I have nearly three decades of experience in commercial software research and development. Apparently, this does not give me a suitable background to fit into the book's intended audience.

The author must delight in inventing acronyms as he throws them around with abandon, often without introduction or explanation. The descriptions of what to do are so far abstracted from the actual business purpose that it is frequently a struggle to decipher what the author is saying. This, combined with excessive Six Sigma technical jargon, makes the book read more like a technical manual than a business book.

I read this book hoping to gain insights into how to tie a software development process into a company's Six Sigma efforts. There were some useful concepts in the book and some useful prescriptive suggestions. However, it took way too much effort to extract the useful parts from the book to allow me to recommend the book to anyone less than a completely experienced Six Sigma practitioner--and I'm not qualified to evaluate whether or not it should be recommended to the complete experienced practitioner. Ultimately, the book was of little help in my efforts to design and implement a software process that is complementary to the company's Six Sigma process.