Getting Creative – Measurement Without Expensive Tools

DATE: November 15, 2001

PLACE: Rideau Room, Sheraton Hotel, 150 Albert Street

SPEAKERS: Vern French, xwave

Organizations often grossly underestimate the effort and schedule needed to successfully complete software projects and only realize the problem when it is too late to recover. Simple methods are required to reduce the cost of estimating and measurement and provide early warning of such problems. Organizations need to know that expensive software estimating and metrics analysis tools are not required.

Over the last 18 months, the presenter has refined an existing Treasury Board estimating spreadsheet so that it could be used in an iterative development environment. He has also used a simple software reliability model and statistical techniques for monitoring the system test and software development processes. The presentation will describe the techniques used by the author to inexpensively and accurately estimate project effort, schedule and quality and measure project results. It will also describe the techniques used to perform the calibrations of the estimating spreadsheet and the reliability model and assess the feasibility of a project. The presenter will share some of the lessons learned from the planning and measurement activities performed and the common themes shared with previous measurement and planning experiences.

Who should attend?

By attending this presentation you will learn:

Mr. French is a software process engineer and senior project manager with 20 years' experience in the software business. He has been estimating and measuring software projects for 16 years. He was the project manager on a project that advanced from SEI CMM level 1 to an estimated level 4 in less than 2 years. He was also the consultant to the Treasury Board Enhanced Management Framework (EMF) Project Planning Tracking and Oversight Working Group. He has published four papers on software estimating, planning, tracking, measurement, oversight and process improvement at International conferences and workshops.