Articles
New Article: Data-Driven Estimation, Management Lead to High Quality
Software projects devote enormous amounts of time and money to quality assurance. It's a difficult task, considering most QA work is remedial in nature - it can correct problems that arise long before the requirements are complete or the first line of code has been written, but has little chance of preventing defects from being created in the first place. By the time the first bugs are discovered, many projects are already locked into a fixed scope, staffing, and schedule that do not account for the complex and nonlinear relationships between size, effort, and defects.
At this point, these projects are doomed to fail, but disasters like these can be avoided. When armed with the right information, managers can graphically demonstrate the tradeoffs between time to market, cost, and quality, and negotiate achievable deadlines and budgets that reflect their management goals.
Software Cost Estimation Article in The DACS Journal
The February issue of the DACS Journal of Software Technology focuses on Software Cost Estimation and Systems Acquisition. My contribution, which you can read here, addresses the challenges faced by estimators and the value of establishing a historical baseline to support smarter planning, counter unrealistic expectations, and maximize productivity.
Using several recent studies, my paper addresses the following questions:
"The Difference Engine" by Phillip Armour in Communications of the ACM
January's Communications of the ACM featured an article by QSM consultant Phillip Armour. "The Difference Engine" focuses on building teams of differently skilled people. The article is partly based on University of Michigan Professor of Complex Systems, Scott Page’s book, The Difference, which shows the power of cognitive diversity in building systems and solving problems. Phil will elaborate more on this subject in a upcoming series on the QSM blog, so stay tuned!
