In a recent 1995 issue of IEEE Software, a survey of software development projects showed that 31 percent were canceled, 53 percent were more than 189 percent over budget, and only 61 percent of the features that users request made it into the final product.
Clearly, software development still continues to confound traditional project management methods, many rooted in hardware project management techniques.
However, new approaches exist that address the unique, non-linear ways that software projects behave. Software project control functions are moving into realms that can more effectively measure, estimate, and capture software project behavior, mid-stream. Traditional methods of tracking activities, time and effort, do not capture the behavior of software development. By using the Carnegie Mellon SEI minimum data set, which adds 1) size metrics and 2) defect metrics, new methods exist to identify the path, or "trajectory" of a software project.
These give managers ability to identify "health at a glance", using visual aids such as "Red, Amber, Green" traffic lights. Mid stream productivity can be captured, much like a "Radar Sweep" can lock onto a object's location and direction. With this, it can be reliably predicted as to where a project is headed, providing opportunities to identify and reduce project risks.
This presentation will highlight these key points and illustrate 2 Case Studies, 1 from a major U.S. semiconductor and microprocessor company, and another from a major European telecom company, describing managerial and cultural issues around software risk management.
About the speaker:
Michael C. Mah is Director and Principal of QSM Associates. Since 1978, QSM has
been an industry research leader on software productivity management, metrics,
and lifecycle modeling.
QSM is internationally known with offices in New England, Washington DC, London, Paris, and Zurich. QSM has worked with Fortune 500 companies such as AT&T, Intel, Digital, Honeywell, GTE, IBM, Sun Microsystems, EDS, Merrill Lynch, Chemical/Chase, British Telecom, and the U.S. Department of Defense and England's Ministry of Defense. QSM serves as advisors to the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute as a member of the Software Metrics Advisory Board. QSM's Founder, Larry Putnam, is the author of "Measures for Excellence, Reliable Software On-Time, Within Budget", Yourdon Press, 1992 Prentice Hall, and "Controlling Software Development", 1996 IEEE Computer Society.
Prior to QSM Mr. Mah served as group manager of Systems Test and Evaluation with the Systems Management Division at the Sperry Corporation. He was a principal catalyst for initiating corporate-wide adoption of software metrics techniques as early as the mid-1980s. Mr. Mah also held positions with General Electric, as group leader for Software Quality Assurance.
Mr. Mah has provided software estimating and productivity consulting for both commercial and government agencies, and has lectured internationally in North America and the Far East on software metrics, productivity management, and total quality for software.
As an industry consultant, he has focused on subjects such as acquisition
management, bid evaluation, software project estimation, and process assessment.
He has authored articles on software productivity and benchmarking for
publications such as Programmer's Update Magazine, and Canada's Information
Technology Magazine.