Software development projects have a long and storied history of failure. In fact, 82% of projects today run late, while errors cost 80% of the average project budget to fix (The Standish Group). Certainly no other business process today is allowed to endure this sort of failure. But software development is often left to chance, despite the significant cost and importance of the process.
The 5 Essentials of Effective
Software Development MetricsndA Framework for a 2 Generation Measurement Model
TMSwapping Intuition for InsightTMSwapping Intuition for Insight
.: Introduction :.
Software development projects have a long and storied history of failure. In fact, 82% of projects today run late, while errors cost 80% of the average project budget to fix (The Standish Group). Certainly no other business process today is allowed to endure this sort of failure. But software development is often left to chance, despite the significant cost and importance of the process.
Why are software projects so prone to failure? In large part, it's because of a profound lack of visibility and transparency into development processes. And this lack of visibility only increases with the complexity of projects and physical distribution of teams. This means that projects that are sent offshore are even more challenged when it comes to visibility, transparency and control.
According to Dana Gardner, noted analyst and ZDNet columnist, "Today's software development projects are highly distributed and complex, which makes the need for accurate metrics more critical than ever. The challenge is gaining accurate and transparent visibility into the actual work patterns of developers, and, more importantly, amassing the metadata of development productivity analytics. Organizations without visibility into development processes are putting business goals at risk."
"You can't manage what you can't measure" is the famous mantra of author and thought leader Tom DeMarco. This message is profound in its simplicity, and it has inspired many believers.
However, many organizations were ultimately disappointed with their early metrics initiatives. It's not uncommon to hear managers lament about metrics programs gone awry. Metrics are said to be artificial, inaccurate, costly to collect, and even unethical. And despite the tremendous importance of metrics, many organizations have resigned themselves to failure because of a negative experience with first-generation initiatives.
Like many other first-generation management techniques, metrics programs often imposed far too much process-crushing organizations under their weight and erasing any potential for promised benefits. But today's approach to metrics is different. Just as other management techniques evolve, "enlightened failures" have informed fundamentally new approaches.
Managers who believe they understand metrics programs are advised to take another look.
Today's approach to metrics calls for automation over process and in-process adjustment over post-mortem analysis. And instead of a centralized approach to management control, today's metrics programs are inclusive, making information available to all stakeholders in the lifecycle. And rather than trying to serve up a sea of data just because it's available, today's programs are based on manageable scale and scope and are designed to deliver simple, actionable insights.
Of course, no metrics program is a silver-bullet solution. To be effective, metrics must be properly planned, managed and acted upon. What is measured, how it's collected and how it's interpreted are the difference between brilliant insights and blind alleys on the path to metrics-driven software development. This whitepaper discusses the five essential elements of software development metrics success, providing a framework for planning a metrics program within your organization.
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.: Why Metrics Fail Us :.
Today's systems for collecting and reporting on metrics are simply not fit for their intended purpose. According to Forrester Research, software development processes are managed today based on traditional project management tools, which they characterize as a "state-of-the-art 40-year-old process." While project management tools play an important role in managing broad initiatives, they are fundamentally limited as it relates to software development processes.
Some of the key limitations include: . Manual - All data is hand-keyed by people, which is time-consuming and distracting. Static - Provides a snapshot in time, but doesn't reflect the dynamism of a project . Subjective - Data inp... [download for more]
