Estimation
What If? The Power of the Question
After being away from QSM and the software world for three years, I was blown away by SLIM v8.0's dynamic product integration. I knew it was coming, yet I was still impressed by the simplicity and power of analysis promoted by real-time data and tool links across the SLIM Suite that frees managers to focus on the important program issues.
SLIM-MasterPlan is the center of the SLIM Suite product integration. It improves upon previously existing program management features of aggregating multiple SLIM-Estimate projects and ancillary tasks with two new capabilities:
Why Does Project Size Grow?
Seen from an airplane window, the ground looks almost two dimensional. Only the largest features: cities, rivers, and mountain ranges, stand out against the background. The true complexity of the terrain only becomes apparent after we land and have to navigate through congested traffic, bad weather, and one-way streets.
Software projects are similar. Staffing and budget plans are often based on high level requirements that tell us what needs to be done, but not how to accomplish it. As business objectives are translated into the actions that need to be taken and the work products that must be produced, the size of the project, whether expressed in lines of code, function points, or RICEF objects, increases along with the time and effort required to create them.
Two Tools Are Better Than One
Have you ever been excited to discover a new use for something familiar, like learning that lighter fluid can be used to remove ink stains from your clothes? I recently discovered a way to leverage the tie between SLIM-Estimate and SLIM-DataManager that I was previously unaware of.
My limited view of SLIM-DataManager as a tool for historical data and SLIM-Estimate as a tool for software project estimation limited my creativity in applying the rich set of capabilities in the entire SLIM tools suite. I recently observed a more experienced SLIM user use both tools to model a history project where very little data was available, using both applications. Here is a description of the situation.
Scenario:
Introducing the SLIM-Estimate Certification Program
QSM is pleased to announce the SLIM-Estimate® Certification Program. Specifically designed to help our customers ensure the technical excellence of their SLIM users, this program increases the business value of our software project estimation tools to your organization.
How Certification Is Achieved:
In order to be awarded certification, a user must demonstrate competence in the following areas:
Replay Now Available for "Best in Class SLIM Estimation Processes for Package Implementations"
If you missed our webinar, Best in Class SLIM Estimation Processes for Package Implementations, a replay is now available.
To be able to estimate package implementations, we need to be able to size them and support productivity assumptions with relevant data. Presented by Keith Ciocco, this webinar demonstrates package implementation sizing processes and how to calibrate SLIM to package implementation project trends.
As Vice President of QSM, Keith has more than 23 years of experience working in sales and customer service, with 15 of those years spent at QSM. Keith’s primary responsibilities include managing business development, existing client relations, customer retention and response.
Webinar: Best in Class SLIM Estimation Processes for Package Implementations
On Thursday, June 16 at 1:00 PM EDT, QSM will host a webinar focused on estimating package implementations.
To be able to estimate package implementations, we need to be able to size them and support productivity assumptions with relevant data. Presented by Keith Ciocco, this webinar demonstrates package implementation sizing processes and how to calibrate SLIM software estimation tools to package implementation project trends.
Deploying Estimation the Right Way - a SLIM Customer Success Story
Two common questions we receive are “how quickly can we get SLIM deployed within our organization?” and “how accurate will our estimates be?” On the accuracy question, our answer is usually that “it depends”. Like most things, accuracy and success in estimating are directly correlated to the effort put into the task. If you buy a commercial estimating tool and try to use it “out of the box” with no tailoring and calibration, accuracy usually suffers. One of the most efficient ways to achieve both of these goals is to use your own historical data. This was an excellent example of how one of our global systems integration clients was able to get almost immediate value by calibrating SLIM-Estimate to their historical data.
SLIM 8.0f1: Estimating Beyond Software
In recent years, we have seen our client base become increasingly diverse, expressing the need for our estimation, tracking, and benchmarking tools for design processes outside of just software. While clients have customized SLIM to other design disciplines in the past, our goal with SLIM 8.0 was to increase configurability within our tools so our users can model any type of system quickly and easily. Now users can forecast and benchmark Agile, infrastructure, offshore/multi-shore, ERP/package implementation projects, and more. In addition to updated trendlines from 10,000 completed software and systems projects, SLIM comes pre-packaged with trend groups, such as Agile, ERP, Financial, Web, and Government.
Read the full press release with detailed product upgrades here.
Technology Can Only Do So Much
It’s hard to believe it’s been 36 years since an IBM manager named Fred Brooks came out with his seminal insights about software development, the most famous of which ("adding more people to a late software project makes it later") came to be known as Brooks’ Law. These days, most software professionals accept and appreciate Brooks’ analysis, yet we continue to make the very mistakes that prompted him to write The Mythical Man Month!
Estimating Agile Projects Webinar
On Thursday, September 30th at 1 pm EDT, QSM will host a Webinar on Agile Estimation Methods.
You can view the replay of this webinar here.
