Method and Plan of Action

Transcription

1 Reducing your Software Costs: Method and Plan of Action Michael Harris David Consulting Group

2 Topics What can be achieved quickly? 4 major steps to cost savings Quantitative & Qualitative Assessments Establishing and Using Baseline Data Modeling Improved Performance Acting on Results Who else has done this? Key Success Factors Conclusions 1

3 What can be achieved quickly? Project Name Profile Score Management Definition Design Build Test Environment Accounts Payable Priotity One HR Enhancements Client Accounts ABC Release Screen Redesign Customer Web Whole Life Regional - East Regional - West Cashflow Credit Automation NISE Help Desk Automation Formula One Upgrade Process Improvements: Code Reviews and Inspections Requirements Management Defect Tracking Configuration Management Project Name Profile Score Management Definition Design Build Test Environment Accounts Payable Priotity One HR Enhancements Client Accounts ABC Release Screen Redesign Customer Web Whole Life Regional - East Regional - West Cashflow Credit Automation NISE Help Desk Automation Formula One Upgrade Baseline Productivity Average Project Size 133 Average FP/SM 10.7 Average Time-To-Market (Months) 6.9 Average Cost/FP $939 Delivered Defects/FP Performance Improvements: Productivity ~ +131% Time to Market ~ -49% Defect Ratio ~ -75% Productivity Improvement Average Project Size 133 Average FP/SM 24.8 Average Time-To-Market (Months) 3.5 Average Cost/FP $467 Delivered Defects/FP

4 Step 1: Quantitative & Qualitative Assessments Research MEASURES Software Size Level of Effort Time to Market Delivered Defects Cost CHARACTERISTICS Skill Levels Automation Process Management User Involvement Environment Analysis PERFORMANCE LEVELS PROFILES Results Correlate Performance Levels to Characteristics Substantiate Impact of Characteristics Identify Best Practices 3

5 Step 1: Quantitative Performance Evaluation COLLECT QUANTITATIVE DATA Size Effort Duration Cost Quality Measured Performance Quantitative Assessment Perform functional sizing on all selected projects. Collect data on project level of effort, cost, duration and quality. Calculate productivity rates for each project, including functional size delivered per staff month, cost per functional size, time to market, and defects delivered. Results Baseline Productivity Average Project Size 133 Average FP/SM 10.7 Average Time-To-Market (Months) 6.9 Average Cost/FP $939 Delivered Defects/FP

6 Step 1: Qualitative Performance Evaluation COLLECT QUALITATIVE DATA Process Methods Skills Tools Management Qualitative Assessment Conduct Interviews with members of each project team (DCG s standard questionnaire can be used to save time) Collect Project Profile information. Develop Performance Profiles to display strengths and weaknesses among the selected projects. Results 5 Capability Profiles Project Name Profile Score Management Definition Design Build Test Environment Accounts Payable Priotity One HR Enhancements Client Accounts ABC Release Screen Redesign Customer Web Whole Life Regional - East Regional - West Cashflow Credit Automation NISE Help Desk Automation Formula One Upgrade

7 Step 1: Function Points - An Effective Sizing Metric Function Point Analysis is a standardized method for measuring the functionality delivered to an end user. Benefits: Quantitative (Objective) Measure Allows for fair comparison of projects where size is a driver of productivity, quality, time to market and process choice Basis for Comparison with Industry Data For any sort of cross-company comparison it is the worst way to measure size except for all the other ways! Practicality: Certified internationally Well-defined, efficient processes for this model analysts available (short-cuts!) Project samples sizes must be representative not exhaustive Costs - very manageable for this sort of often repeated initiative FP adoption? Smart people use it. What about you? FP adoption? Smart people use it. What about you? 6

8 Step 2: Establish A Baseline Size is expressed in terms of functionality delivered to the user Software Size Rate of delivery is a measure of productivity Performance Productivity A representative selection of projects is measured Organizational Baseline Rate of Delivery Function Points per Person Month Note: Differences could be easily explainable due to technologies used, experience of teams, etc. or not.

9 Step 2: Compare To Industry Benchmarks Software Size Industry baseline performance Rate of Delivery Function Points per Person Month 8 This can be done quickly using DCG s own data or more slowly using other sources

10 Step 3: Model Improvements & Implement Actions Project Name Profile Score Management Definition Design Build Test Environment Accounts Payable Priotity One HR Enhancements Client Accounts ABC Release Screen Redesign Customer Web Whole Life Regional - East Regional - West Cashflow Credit Automation NISE Help Desk Automation Formula One Upgrade Target the Process Improvements e.g. Code Reviews and Inspections Requirements Management Defect Tracking Configuration Management Project Name Profile Score Management Definition Design Build Test Environment Accounts Payable Priotity One HR Enhancements Client Accounts ABC Release Screen Redesign Customer Web Whole Life Regional - East Regional - West Cashflow Credit Automation NISE Help Desk Automation Formula One Upgrade Baseline Productivity Average Project Size 133 Average FP/SM 10.7 Average Time-To-Market (Months) 6.9 Average Cost/FP $939 Delivered Defects/FP Performance Improvements: Productivity ~ +131% Time to Market ~ -49% Defect Ratio ~ -75% Productivity Improvement Average Project Size 133 Average FP/SM 24.8 Average Time-To-Market (Months) 3.5 Average Cost/FP $467 Delivered Defects/FP

11 Step 4: Acting on Results You have identified some low hanging fruit for process improvement. What next? It is important to select the right best practice for each specific problem: Code Reviews and Inspections: Fagan Inspection Training, the right balance of formal & informal, code standard committee with the right champions Requirements Management: Change Control Board processes, traceability, Acceptance criteria for next step customers Defect Tracking Configuration Management Automated builds, automated check in of code, integration of defect systems between development & different testing areas. 10 You may need expert help in any or all areas!

12 Who else has done this? NAVAIR serves the US Navy by developing, acquiring, and supporting naval aeronautical and related technology systems V provider of innovative tax processing software solutions Q - a premier provider of full-service voice, video and data services for people at work, home and on the move Sanchez Computer Associates - engages in the development and marketing of scalable and integrated software and services that provide banking, customer integration, brokerage, wealth management, and outsourcing solutions. T - a leading national telecommunications company in Canada C a global diversified financial services provider 11

13 Key Success Factors Get agreement from stakeholders to respect the results Choose representative projects Choose enough projects for valid statistics but not so many that data gathering is endless Explain the process to the participants Share the results with the participants Question and understand the results Act on the results Measure the changes at least annually 12

14 Conclusions - Reducing your Software Costs: You can do it! You can do it well! You can do it quickly! You can do it at a reasonable cost! You can be sure of success with DCG! Avec toute la vitesse!!! 13