September 2015

September 2015

How Can We Fix the Disconnect Between Software Vendors and Their Clients?

QSM is a leading demand and vendor management company. We have many years of experience working with outsource management professionals, evaluating software project vendor bids and monitoring the development progress of those bids for our clients. We are often hired to help them with their vendor management process because their past projects have failed to meet cost, effort, reliability, and duration expectations. 

It starts with the independent estimate and bid evaluation process. Our main clients are CIOs, PMO managers, purchasing managers, software project managers, and business stakeholders. Our clients will usually have a large software development or package configuration project pending. They are initially trying to figure out which vendor to hire. Vendor A will offer them a bid of 20 million dollars with a specified duration commitment and Vendor B will offer them a bid of 30 million dollars with a different duration commitment. How do we know which vendor to choose? Can Vendor A really finish with a lower cost and shorter schedule? Is the system going to work when it’s done?

The way it usually works is the client will make a decision based on their experience or gut feel. Or if they have already worked with a specific vendor in the past they will go with that vendor again based on some personal relationships that have evolved. Then the problems start. The work that was promised doesn’t get done within the promised time or the promised budget. The vendor then comes back and says they will add people to the project and everything will be ok. The client approves the revised project plan since they don’t have a way to confirm the accuracy of the revised proposal. Then even bigger problems start. More money is wasted, the schedule slips even more, and relationships sour.

The Lowly Line of Code (Part One)

“I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that” – HAL 9000[1]

Source lines of code (SLOC) is a measure of software size, in use since the 1960s. This blog post describes various uses of SLOC from the perspective of software measurement.

There seems to be a love/hate relationship with the line of code measure. Despite its broad and continuous use (or perhaps because of it) SLOC seems to get the blame for many a failed software project, process improvement or software metrics initiative. There are even those who claim that “…in many situations usage of LOC metrics can be viewed as professional malpractice…”[2] But, as you will see, SLOC has many benefits, when used intelligently.

Blog Post Categories 
Metrics Sizing Software Sizing

Should Task Planning Occur Before Software Estimation?

I work for QSM, a leading software project estimation and demand management company. We focus on top-down estimation, meaning we figure out the total project duration and effort before any detailed planning occurs. We use SLIM-Estimate also known as the Putnam Model. Larry Putnam Sr. introduced SLIM in 1978. It is one of the leading software estimation tools in the world, validated with over 35 years of industry leading research and updated regularly with the latest technologies. 

Many people call us for help with team size software project estimation, they want to see how many people it’s going to take to deliver a specified amount of functionality within a certain duration and budget. At the time they call us they are often using task level planning tools to try to figure this out. 

The problem is that it’s tough to allocate people and the number of hours they will work when they haven’t figured out the specific requirements of each task and when they haven’t estimated the total duration and effort for the overall system. A manager could spend days creating a task level plan that doesn’t add up to the overall project duration and budget that is needed to deliver the functional requirements. When it doesn’t add up then re-planning has to take place costing more time and money. This is why QSM recommends estimating the big picture first, the scope level. 

Blog Post Categories 
Estimation Process Improvement Sizing

ITMPI Webinar - Agile Estimation: Beyond the Myths

Presented by for ITMPI on Sept. 9 at 11:00 AM EST by Dr. Andy Berner.

When it comes to agile, there are common myths and misconceptions about estimation. In this webinar, QSM’s Andy Berner will offer corrections to these, such as:

  • Why we still need to estimate duration on agile projects
  • Why velocity is not constant on a project, or across projects
  • Why setting expectations based on scope is still important, even as we “embrace change”
  • Why burndown charts will not be straight lines
  • Why you still need to plan for work on requirements, even though it’s not all “upfront”

While some longstanding principles about software estimation still apply, agile methods require some significant changes to how we estimate. This webinar will show you how to tailor estimation tools and methods specifically to an agile development environment to estimate, measure, and analyze your agile software development projects. Andy Berner will demonstrate how top-down estimation fits with the principles of agile development, and will discuss what needs to be estimated, how size factors in, and how to accommodate different iteration lengths and types of work. This will allow you to optimize the choices and plans for the work of your agile teams.

Register for this webinar!

Blog Post Categories 
Agile Webinars