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I’ve been building software for over 50 years. There are some secrets to software quality that are often overlooked. Here’s a few:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I’ve spent almost my entire life working in software and software development, from mainframes to minicomputers to microcomputers, ultimately leading to the QI Macros. I’ll tell you what, I took a course a long time ago from T. Capers Jones where we studied what makes software maintainable and unmaintainable. It turns out how many decision points you have in a given module determines how testable and maintainable it can be.
Continue Reading "Software Code Quality"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.
People keep asking me if Six Sigma applies only to manufacturing. Nope. You can even use it to improve your golf game.
(You can download my free “Six Sigma Golf” pamphlet by clicking HERE.)
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I was at the American Society for Quality’s Lean Six Sigma conference down in Phoenix a few weeks ago, and one guy said, “Aren’t you the guy that wrote Six Sigma Golf?” I said “Yeah!” I [wrote] that book a long time ago. Nobody brought it up for a long time, but I said yeah; I was reading Dave Pelz’ “Putting [Bible]” and “Short Game Bible.”
Continue Reading "Using Six Sigma to Improve Your Golf Game"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.
People often ask if QI Macros is in competition with Minitab. No, I tell them. We are both in competition with a common enemy. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I was at the American Society for Quality Lean Six Sigma conference, and my booth for QI Macros was right next to Minitab. You know, people are always asking me, “Jay, do you guys compete with Minitab?” I say, “No, we compete with ignorance and apathy.”
“Number one, people don’t know how these tools could help them, whether it’s me or Minitab.
Continue Reading "Does QI Macros® Compete with Minitab?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.
Some people use PDCA, some use PDSA, some use DMAIC. It doesn’t matter what alphabet system you use. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“When I started out (this was back in the 90s), it was Total Quality Management; the process was PDCA. Then later it was PDSA, and then it became DMAIC, and I’m sure there’s some new iteration of that that’s going to come out at some time.
“Don’t let these words freak you out: it’s just that it’s pretty much all the same process, pretty much all the same tools in the same order, right?
Continue Reading "PDCA PDSA DMAIC Whatever!"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.
I have noticed that many Quality Improvement teams focus on special causes, not common causes. That’s not Quality Improvement. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I was out working with one brewery, and they brought me into where the team was, and the team talked about all their little projects and everything else, but guess what? They were all doing special cause analysis.
“Workarounds are anti-improvement, focusing on nothing but special causes. That’s not improvement, that’s just dealing with day-to-day chaos. Improvement is when you start to reduce defects and errors, or increase patient satisfaction, or do something else.
Continue Reading "Fixing Special Causes is NOT Improvement"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.
Deming contrasted US and Japanese focus: spec limits vs variation. Here’s the essence:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I don’t know about you, but every once in a while I go back and read through books that I’ve gotten in Quality over the years. I went back into Deming’s “Out of the Crisis.” It was very interesting. There’s a thought he put in here and I’ll read it to you: “We in America have worried about specifications: meet the specification. In contrast, the Japanese are worried about uniformity, working for less and less variation around the nominal value…”
“What does he mean?
Continue Reading "Deming on Spec Limits vs. Variation"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.
At the IHI conference, many people told me stories of their crazy, cool improvement projects done with QI Macros. I asked them a simple question for which they had no answer. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and the QI Macros [software].
“I was at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement conference out in Orlando at the beginning of December. I was there and people were coming by and they were talking about QI Macros at the exhibit booth. You know, a number of them came up and told me a story.
Continue Reading "Crazy Cool Improvement Projects"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.
I was rereading Deming’s book “Out of the Crisis,” and discovered a way to use control charts that is new. Deming uses control charts to compare individual worker performance. Deming often asked leaders to drive out fear, but comparing individuals seems like a way to create fear unless you use the results to help train individuals to higher standards of performance. Here’s how:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma Demystified” and QI Macros [software].
“I don’t know about you, but every once in a while I go back and re-read books about Quality.
Continue Reading "Deming’s Insights on Control Charts for Workers"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog, QI Macros, Statistics.
Traditional Form-Storm-Norm-Perform models of team development take too long. Here’s how to collapse the time and skip right to perform.
“I was looking at myASQ, and somebody was asking about the four steps of Team development: Form, Storm, Norm, Perform. You know, if you do it traditional (how it usually was taught), it takes a long time for a team to form (come together), storm (fight each other a little bit), normalize their behavior (so they get productive).
“Well, I found that that takes too long. I can’t get to results that way. What I discovered was if I could do the analysis and figure out how to pinpoint where the problem would be, then I can figure out who ought to be on that team to solve that problem.
Continue Reading "Form Storm Norm Perform Takes Too Long!"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Data Mining, Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog.
Traditional Lean Six Sigma wisdom says to start top down, but that’s a sure fire way to fail. Here’s why:
“Hi, I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and the QI Macros [software].
“I think there’s a lot of conventional wisdom in in Six Sigma and Lean and Six Sigma that says, “Oh, you must start with the leadership team.” Well, I was reading this book that was recommended to me, “Creating A Lean Culture.” This was used by Virginia Mason up in Seattle to transform how they deliver health care. I thought this was interesting about how Lean typically starts and grows.
Continue Reading "Lean Six Sigma Implementation – Top Down or Middle Out?"
Posted by Jay Arthur in Agile Lean Six Sigma, Improvement Insights, Jay Arthur Blog, Lean, Six Sigma.
