How in the world does landing on an aircraft carrier relate to software estimation? Anyone who has ever experienced the terror joy of landing a jet on an aircraft carrier, especially on that dark, stormy night with no moon and a pitching deck, appreciates the importance of a good start. Your line-up is critical, as is your airspeed, angle-of-attack and attention to the "ball" – that tiny little yellow dot between the rows of green lights. As a former Bombardier/Navigator in the Grumman A6E Intruder, I have teamed with pilots on over 300 landings, all of which I have lived through. My job was to monitor and call the line-up and radar altimeter, handle the radios, manage the fuel and generally avoid sounding terrified for the entire evolution.

The process was made significantly easier if we arrived at the 3/4 mile point behind the ship at the right airspeed, gross weight, angle of attack, altitude and line up. Sort of like juggling a bunch of skittish cats.

But when all those parameters came together, we had a good start. When embarking on a software development project, or any engineering project, it’s equally important to have a strong foundation. That means having a solid idea of the characteristics of the project, what resources are (or should be) available, what duration is most likely and how good does it have to be. A software estimation tool can provide the project manager with this essential information.

If you were unable to attend our recent webinar, "Avoiding Disaster in IT Outsourcing: A Quantitative Solution for Vendor Management," a replay is now available.

In the Forbes article “Now Every Company is a Software Company,” David Kirkpatrick argues “regardless of industry your company is now a software company, and pretending that it’s not spells serious peril.”

As organizations in nearly every industry sector transform into software companies, many executives, project managers, and procurement departments are being thrust into the role of managing IT vendors on software projects, yet they do not have the expertise to do so effectively. Typical pain points include:

With the most recent spurt of inclement weather, there is really no denying that winter is here.  After awaking to about 4 inches of snow accumulation, I begrudgingly bundled myself up in my warmest winter gear and proceeded to dig out my car.  Perhaps the brisk air woke me up faster than usual because as I dug a path to the car, I began to think about software testing, specifically how effective early testing can reduce the chances of schedule slippages and cost overruns.  Allow me to explain.

I am excited about the resource demand management capabilities in our newest SLIM-Estimate release (8.2). Software project estimates can now provide a breakout of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staffing requirements by role by month. The staffing profile below shows how different roles, or skills, are required at different points in the schedule, based upon a particular development methodology. You can see that 6 FTE Programmers are needed by the month of May. Producing a high-level, scope-based estimate early in the software development lifecycle with detailed resource demand data helps the PMO and portfolio managers determine the best timing for project resource allocation, and setting project start dates that maximize productivity and reduce bottlenecks.

Once the estimate and resulting project skills allocation plan has been approved, resource demand management has not ended. Tracking actual staffing at the skill and task level for in-flight projects not only ensures the right people are working on the right things, meaning that product development is on track, it also allows timely resource plan adjustments to address unforeseen staffing needs.

It is no coincidence that this year’s release of the 2014 QSM Software Almanac has been coined the Research Edition. The data, research, insights, analysis and trends packed into the 200+ page book truly make it the ultimate resource for software development and estimation. That said, I thought I’d share just a few of the highlights from this year’s Almanac as a little teaser to what you’ll find when you download the full (and free) resource.

QSM's recent webinar, Organizational Success; A Practical Guide to the Estimation Center of Excellence, presented by J.D. Ottenbreit, featured a lively Q&A session from our audience. Here are the highlights:

Q: You mentioned that data is critical to an Estimation Center of Excellence, what if we don’t have any good data yet?

I like to ski.  I mean really like to ski.  I've done it for a long time and I fancy I'm quite good at it.  I Iike to have the latest gear too.  So I have this Ski Tracks app on my iPhone see.  It's very cool.  When I start skiing for the day I set it going and it records every run I make: the altitude, the speed.  Heck, it even tracks your runs on a map that you can export and relive on Google Earth.  Really. 

Ski Tracks also summarizes your days' efforts showing the total number of runs, the total vertical skied, the maximum altitude, the time spent skiing, the distance traveled, the angle of the slope…

A Hard Day on the Slopes

Sitting in the condo at the end of a hard day on the slopes of Breckenridge Resort in Colorado, I checked my Ski Tracks for the day.  "Woohoo!" I said.  "Glenn, come check this out!"  My ski buddy Glenn ambled in from the kitchen; we've skied together for several years, ever since our respective spouses decided that for some reason they didn't want to ski with us anymore. 

"Look at this," I exclaimed holding up my iPhone showing the summary of my day's skiing.  "Just check out this top speed!!"

Glenn squinted at the screen.  "Hmmm, 54.8 mph," he observed.

"How about that?" I asked rhetorically, "have the ol' legs still got it or what?"  I was inordinately pleased with myself.  I mean, 54.8 mph is FAST.

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.