If you were unable to attend our recent webinar, Using Function Points and SLIM to Support a Complete Estimation Process, a replay is now available.

How can project managers use their Function Point history to improve the way they estimate their projects? Leveraging historical data to generate and sanity check macro-level estimates early in the project lifecycle can save thousands of dollars in planning time and prevent signing up to unrealistic project schedules and budgets. Now that we've learned the basics of estimating before requirements, Keith Ciocco demonstrates how to use industry data and Function Point history with the SLIM Suite of Tools for a more mature estimation process. 

As Vice President of QSM, Keith has more than 25 years of experience working in sales and customer service, with 17 of those years spent at QSM. Keith’s primary responsibilities include managing business development, existing client relations, customer retention and response. 

Watch the webinar replay!

The thirty years I have spent in software have bridged a period of remarkable and ever accelerating change. Mercifully, coding an online system on a black and white CRT that accesses an IMS database is mostly a quaint memory. Technology, tools, and processes have all evolved. Why is it, then, that we continue to have the same problems we experienced in the Information Technology Dark Ages? Here are the symptoms:

• Software projects that continue to overshoot their schedules
• Quality problems have neither disappeared nor lessened to an acceptable level
• Budgets are regularly exceeded: sometimes wildly
• Project estimates are inaccurate

I see two principal reasons. I’m certain there are others.

Our Focus on Technology

We are not Luddites resisting change; we love technology and embrace it whole heartedly. We have a rich array of programming and testing tools at our disposal. Why, then, have problems with cost, schedule, and quality persisted?  

One reason is that we focus on technical solutions to problems with many non-technical components. Suppose you have the choice of coding a project in COBOL or Visual Basic. (Suspend your disbelief for a moment and accept that both languages are suitable for the task at hand.) You will produce far less code in VB than in COBOL. You may see some slight reduction in cost and schedule; but it will not approach the 40 – 50% reduction in code that will be seen if you choose VB over COBOL.  

The reason is fairly simple. On a project of any size, coding and unit testing is not where most effort is expended. One number that is touted puts coding/unit testing at 30% of total project effort. This means that a 50% reduction in coding effort yields only a 15% reduction in project effort. While we want and need more effective tools for coding and testing, they have little impact on the remaining 70% of project effort.  

On Thursday, June 28 at 1:00 PM EDT, QSM's Keith Ciocco will present Using Function Points and SLIM to Support a Complete Estimation Process.

How can project managers use their Function Point history to improve the way they estimate their projects? Leveraging historical data to generate and sanity check macro-level estimates early in the project lifecycle can save thousands of dollars in planning time and prevent signing up to unrealistic project schedules and budgets. Now that we've learned the basics of estimating before requirements, Keith Ciocco demonstrates how to use industry data and Function Point history with the SLIM Suite of Tools for a more mature estimation process. 

As Vice President of QSM, Keith has more than 25 years of experience working in sales and customer service, with 17 of those years spent at QSM. Keith’s primary responsibilities include managing business development, existing client relations, customer retention and response. 

Watch the replay of this webinar!

After one particularly difficult midterm in college, my professor said, "This is just a wakeup call; there's still time to improve before the final." I think that wakeup call was particularly painful, but my professor's words stick with me today, especially when thinking about data collection (or lack thereof) when a project is over.

As someone who is not a project manager, it was difficult for me to understand why project managers would not collect their own historical data. I understand now that after a project is finished, people move on to the next project and there's no time to update project stats. Recently, I read a post on Gantthead.com by Kenneth Darter called, Project Closure: Party or Post-Mortem?. Darter says if the project was a success, then it's important to record why it was successful; if the project was not successful, it's important to capture why it was not successful.

The word "data" in Latin literally means "things having been given." At the end of a project, you have been given a lot of things that only you and your team know: size, effort, duration, staffing, PI, cost, etc. If you are able to take a moment to fully document your project information, you not only build a historical database, but you're able to reflect back on that project to improve future endeavors (whether you would like to remember it or forget it completely). Darter recommends creating a checklist which, "should be defined early on in the project and communicated to everyone who will have input into the checklist at the end of the project." In addition to project specific information, he specifically recommends these three items:

Our recent webinar, Estimating Before Requirements with Function Points and Other Metrics, was a huge success! If you were unable to attend, a replay and pdf version of the slides are now available. If you have any questions regarding this material or QSM's Function Point Analysis services, please do not hesitate to contact us.

It is well known that project estimating based on parametric models has reached a sophistication where realistic estimates, schedules and predictable outcomes are indeed possible given a set of software and systems requirements. However, increasingly with the fast pace of Agile and other development methods is the requirement for estimates much earlier in the life cycle. What happens when project estimating moves back a full phase – before requirements, and acquisition managers, contractors, auditors and financial analysts are forced to develop and analyze estimates based on unknown requirements? Presented by industry expert Carol Dekkers, this presentation examines how to identify and document assumptions, create a logical and traceable project map including locations of potential “landmines” (calculated risks) that accompany this preliminary estimating. Experienced estimating professionals and contract managers will find a basis for common ground in this presentation – as the advice presented will create the basis for dialog and discussion of early estimates.

Watch the full replay here!

On Thursday, June 7 at 1:00 PM EDT, QSM will host Estimating Before Requirements with Function Points and other Metrics, presented by industry expert Carol Dekkers.

It is well known that project estimating based on parametric models has reached a sophistication where realistic estimates, schedules and predictable outcomes are indeed possible given a set of software and systems requirements.  However, increasingly with the fast pace of Agile and other development methods is the requirement for estimates much earlier in the life cycle. What happens when project estimating moves back a full phase – before requirements, and acquisition managers, contractors, auditors and financial analysts are forced to develop and analyze estimates based on unknown requirements?  Presented by industry expert Carol Dekkers, this presentation examines how to identify and document assumptions, create a logical and traceable project map including locations of potential “landmines” (calculated risks) that accompany this preliminary estimating.  Experienced estimating professionals and contract managers will find a basis for common ground in this presentation – as the advice presented will create the basis for dialog and discussion of early estimates.

QSM is pleased to announce that we are now an approved PMI Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.), making it easier than ever for SLIM Training attendees to earn PDUs! R.E.P.s are organizations that have been approved by PMI to help project managers achieve and maintain the Project Management Professional (PMP)^®, Program Management Professional (PgMP)^® and other PMI professional credentials.

QSM's SLIM Training Course teaches attendees how to accurately estimate project size (scope) and calculate productivity to project risk-buffered effort-time trade-offs. Additionally, attendees learn how to leverage the SLIM tools for tracking, variance, analysis, forecasting, and benchmarking to manage risk as a project unfolds, as well as analyze key project metrics to meet project business goals and plan continuous software process improvement efforts.

The full SLIM training course is 19 PDUs. Students taking the full course can claim 6 PDUs for PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP)^® and 4 PDUs for PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)^SM.

Read the full press release.

PMP, PMI-ACP, PMI-RMP, and PgMP are registered marks of Project Management Institute, Inc.

Please welcome Carol Dekkers who joins QSM as a part-time Consultant and Trainer. Carol will be a member of our consulting team and also assisting as needed with our research and training needs. Carol has been a longtime teaming partner of QSM and those of us who have worked with her know that she is an excellent speaker, writer, trainer and consultant.  

Carol is a recognized international expert in the software metrics and IT Project Management industries. A former President of the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG), Carol has been project editor of the U.S. delegation to ISO software and systems engineering standards in function points and benchmarking (ISO/IEC JTC1 SC7) since 1994. 

I am often asked this question during SLIM Training classes.  I remember wondering about that myself.  It is a logical question since SLIM-Estimate workbooks are often imported into SLIM-Control to create the baseline project plan.  The answer is ‐‐ they are not directly related, because uncertainty ranges, probability curves, and control bounds are designed to perform different tasks.  This post is the first in a series looking at risk associated with an estimate, risk of your project plan, and handling deviations from the plan.

What are we talking about?

The first thing we need to do is define some very important terms that are often misused (I am the first to admit I have been guilty!).  I went to good old Dictionary.com and looked up the following:

QSM is pleased to welcome Andy Berner to our development team as a Senior Software Engineer. He will be supporting the product development team on new SLIM software estimation, forecasting, and benchmarking products as well as the IBM Rational integrations. As an IBM Rational Partner, QSM has had the privilege of working with Andy over the last several years designing and implementing integrations between the SLIM Tool Suite and the IBM Rational applications Rational Team Concert, Rational Focal Point, and Rational Method Composer.  

Andy Berner joins our team with experience in a wide variety of areas in software development. Andy came from IBM where he was lead architect for enablement and strategy in the Ready for IBM Rational program. Andy has done extensive consulting on software development methods and tools, recently focusing on integrations of tools and team members throughout the software lifecycle. Prior to IBM, Andy spent 11 years at EDS. In a former life, Andy was a research mathematician and teacher, and is now looking forward to helping QSM customers improve their ability to manage and control their projects.