For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Software Size Matters, And You Should Measure It

Find The Right Software-Sizing Technique For Your Development Organization

by Mary Gerush, Dave West, July 27, 2009

It is critical for application development professionals to be able to effectively and objectively answer the question "how big is your software project?" in order to provide effective metrics, improve estimation practices, target improvement initiatives, . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Function Points: A Critical Analysis Of The Pros And Cons Of Adoption

by Mary Gerush, July 23, 2009

Through 40 years of software development, changing paradigms, and a plethora of languages, one thing remains constant: Applications professionals still struggle to find meaningful and comprehensive techniques to estimate programming effort and quantify . . .

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Measuring SOA Service Reuse

Look To IT Costs And Business Value For A Complete Picture

by Larry Fulton, October 30, 2008

Service reuse is both a feature and a benefit of service-oriented architecture (SOA). On the one hand, reuse is among the most easily measured behaviors in SOA. On the other hand, reuse statistics can be misleading: Counting service consumers masks variations . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Application Development Pros: Must-Read Research In Any Economic Downturn

by Mike Gilpin, October 28, 2008

Whether the economy slips into recession or not, many firms are starting to tighten their budgets. Although this means even more limited resources than usual, the business will continue to expect application development teams to deliver high-quality, . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

App Dev Leaders — Got Metrics?

Overcoming The Metrics Challenge Is Tough But Worth It

by Mary Gerush, October 15, 2008

Managing an application development organization is complex. App dev leaders manage staff and budgets, keep production systems healthy, and deliver new and enhanced solutions based on both custom and packaged applications. At the same time, the business . . .

For CIOs

Develop Metrics Thoughtfully To Streamline Application Portfolios Successfully

by Phil Murphy, July 23, 2008

CIOs will be stuck with burdensome, expensive application portfolios until they take the steps necessary to rationalize and streamline the portfolios. But streamlining the portfolio with poor transparency and no usable metrics virtually guarantees that . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Best Practices: Estimating Development Projects

by Carey Schwaber, April 22, 2008

Poor estimates and the resulting poor project plans cause project failures. Application development organizations' estimates are fairly accurate for small projects, but they often fall short for large or complex projects. Good estimates and plans result . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Case Study: EDS Uses Actual Results To Calibrate Estimates

by Carey Schwaber, April 22, 2008

Systems integrators live and die by the accuracy of their project estimates. To improve ad hoc estimation methods that were producing inaccurate results, EDS began capturing actual project data in a central repository and trained estimators to consult . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

App Dev Managers Should Measure Team Productivity

Use Productivity Data To Sharpen Estimates And Avoid Overcommitting

by Peter Sterpe, December 6, 2007

Application development managers need to know how productive their teams are. Managers acknowledge that measuring their shop's productivity would enable them to make informed decisions around capacity planning, staff allocation, outsourcing, and right-sizing . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Creating An IT Performance Management Report Card

by Alex Cullen, Carey Schwaber, December 29, 2006

It's hard to improve performance without measuring it to assess its current state. When teams are asked to do so, they must identify measures that are appropriate given the nature of the work and that can be summarized in an easy-to-understand dashboard. . . .

How Do We Build Software? Let Us Count The Ways

Best Practices In Application Development Process Rationalization

by Carey Schwaber, November 17, 2006

Process standardization initiatives are no small undertaking, often spanning large and heterogeneous organizational units. But full process standardization is rarely a possibility — and even when it's possible, it's often not advisable. The challenge? . . .

Performance-Driven Software Development

How IT Shops Can More Efficiently Meet Performance Requirements

by Carey Schwaber, February 28, 2006

When software automates business processes, software performance is the limiting factor for business performance. A slow order processing engine necessarily means slowly processed orders. Even though software performance matters to the business, it's . . .

Metrics For Agile Development Projects

Emphasize Value And Customer Satisfaction

by Liz Barnett, August 29, 2005

Application development (AD) teams that use Agile development processes, such as eXtreme Programming (XP), Scrum, DSDM, and others, are highly successful, yet they may be pressured more than traditional AD teams to quantify their results. Agile teams . . .

Goal-Question-Metric Method Is Still The Most Pragmatic Way To Develop Metrics

by Margo Visitacion, Liz Barnett, August 1, 2005

Selecting metrics for project managers and application development (AD) organizations remains a challenge for most IT shops. To ensure successful project delivery, project managers must have insight into a wide variety of project factors, including those . . .

Metrics For Application Development

Selecting A Balanced Set Is No Easy Task

by Liz Barnett, May 2, 2005

Companies must choose a balanced mix of metrics to get the true picture of how their application development (AD) organizations are functioning. Many IT organizations do not or cannot measure their development teams' productivity, quality, or cost effectiveness, . . .

Measuring The Value Of Application Development

Agile Teams Use "Business Value Delivered" To Communicate Status

by Liz Barnett, March 22, 2005

Traditional application development projects estimate the cost and duration of a project and then report on progress relative to the plan. This approach communicates how much work has been completed but does not address the value of the work. As IT organizations . . .

Successful Change Management Requires Focus On Key Metrics

by Uttam Narsu, April 21, 2004

Change management is a critical yet often overlooked enterprise process. Done poorly, the enterprise's agility is at risk. But while measuring service-level metrics is important, it's also critical to benchmark your change management processes against . . .

Key Metrics for Quality Assurance

by Margo Visitacion, August 19, 2002

Organizations employing quality assurance (QA) practices as part of their testing and quality management systems must create benchmarks to measure effectiveness and progress.

Key Metrics for Application Development Organizations — Be Sure to Tie Metrics to Goals

by Liz Barnett, Uttam Narsu, August 13, 2002

Without metrics, everything is just an opinion. Metrics use is on the rise in enterprise AD shops today. Given the classic resistance by developers, metrics programs must be goal-oriented and sold as-such within the organization.