After many months of research, I’m pleased to announce that today QSM has released the 2014 version of its Software Almanac. A follow-up to the previous version released in 2006, this 200+ page book includes more than 20 articles on topics such as metrics, agile methodology, long term planning, and trends in software development.
The Almanac is one of the few research compendiums that studies how software development has evolved since 1980. The source of this research is the QSM Metrics Database, which contains data from over 10,000 completed software projects from North and South America, Australia, Europe, Africa, and Asia, representing over 740 million lines of code, 600+ development languages, and 105,833 person years of effort.
The field of software development has long focused on finding predictable and repeatable processes that improve quality and productivity, which is why many organizations are taking an interest in agile methodology. As such, this year’s Almanac focuses on this topic, which has generated increased interest since the 2006 release. Specifically, it takes a close look at projects that have been based on agile methodologies and successfully completed within the past five years.