« September 2008 | Main | January 2009 »
November 24, 2008
Surviving, Thriving in Turbulent Times
Defensive postures abound during this current economic mess, and most everywhere you turn, the mantra is about making deep cuts to avoid costs. There's another approach: create a high-value, low-cost strategy that increases productivity while simultaneously delivering measurable value to company stakeholders, faster, than via traditional methods.
So... If I were a technology manager, I'd be focusing on key strategies to make the best out the current situation. I'd deliver smaller software releases with high value features - first and foremost at the top of the list, use teams that are as small as possible, and avoid costly rework by making sure that "tight communication-feedback loops" help get software done right, as much as possible, the first time. And secure management buy-in on this strategy by showing them ROI numbers on how it works. Sounds like Agile development.
"Agile in Turbulent Times," is the theme of a two-part webinar sponsored by Rally Software on Wednesday, December 10th at 1pm EST. I am pleased to be the host of Part 1, "Proving the Financial Benefit of Agile," where we'll show how to quantify the financial return, time-to-market, cost, and quality of successful agile strategies. The highlight will be the result of a study that QSM Associates performed on 30 agile projects across 9 companies, comparing the results against the QSM SLIM-Metrics database which contains trends from over 7,500 completed projects collected worldwide.
To read the detailed description, or to register for this event, click here. I look forward to having you join us!
Posted by Mike at 7:56 PM | Comments (0)
November 11, 2008
New SLIM 7.0 Release, Now Shipping
All of us at QSM are very excited about the new SLIM 7.0 Release which represents the latest state-of-the-art in software measurement and estimation. Personally, I feel that this is a major milestone in manifesting virtually all we know as a team in software measurement, management, and forecasting.
As many are well aware, what's especially exciting to me is the blending of "QSM science" in the space of helping companies implement Agile methods, and the way SLIM portrays how agile software projects behave. I've had the pleasure of using the models at two of the highest performing companies implementing XP and SCRUM, namely Follett Software and BMC Software, and creating trends and analyses that have been the crux of recent keynote and main stage talks at conferences like Agile 2008, Better Software, and Agile Develelopment Practices (where I am today, teaching a full-day session on Agile Metrics :)
But as you can see in the press release below, quantifying ROI, predicting schedule outcomes, forecasting project scope within deadlines, creating reliable velocity trends and burndown charts for stories and bugs etc. isn't just for the few; it's available to anyone who wants to "just do it" themselves. Below are quotes from Kim Wheeler of Follett and how she's used SLIM to achieve just about the highest level of productivity and quality that I've personally measured, something especially vital in these economic times. Across 6 projects, they've delivered software 50% faster than industry with twice the quality, while saving over $7.8 million! As a result, they are the dominant player in their marketplace, winning industry awards and increasing their market share and profitability. Bravo!
Guess what? We teach this stuff! I'd welcome you to any of my future conference tutorials or SLIM workshops in McLean VA. However, both our last class in October and our next class in December - have quickly sold out. (Don't be dissuaded - come see us in January!) You can contact Sean Callaghan at sean.callaghan@qsma.com for more information about upcoming events.
-------------------------------------------
QSM Announces SLIM 7.0 Planning, Estimating Solution
For Complex Enterprise Software Development Scenarios
MCLEAN, VA -- -- QSM, Inc. announces a new version of the company’s flagship software lifecycle management solution, SLIM Suite 7.0, bringing a new level of sophistication to the planning and estimation strategies of software developers. QSM is a provider of software tools and consulting services that enable organizations to estimate, track, and benchmark their software development and maintenance projects.
Commercial and government enterprises worldwide use SLIM in three critical stages: to estimate the cost and schedule for new projects; to benchmark completed projects against others; and to measure and control “in-flight” projects to prevent overruns. Used for managing both internal and outsourced application development, SLIM is comprised of five elements, which can be used individually or in the integrated suite: SLIM-Control, SLIM-Estimate, SLIM-DataManager, SLIM-Metrics, and SLIM-MasterPlan.
"Until you measure and compare, you don't know how good you really are,” said Kim Wheeler, Director of Development Projects, Follett Software Company, the leader in school book and library automation technology. In conjunction with QSM Associates, Follett uses SLIM tools to more effectively estimate and manage their Agile projects. “SLIM is well suited to the fast-paced, iterative world we live in. SLIM measurements have enabled us to identify that our in-house Agile development saved more than $7.8 million compared to industry experience. Instead of seeking cost savings offshore, we're achieving these higher savings with our own team,” said Wheeler.
“SLIM has been an incredible motivator to our staff. After using SLIM on three XP projects, we have experienced continuous improvement; in fact, our most recent three projects have hit even higher levels of productivity. Such a return is unprecedented in our experience," Wheeler said. Follett’s experience and expertise in library automation and materials serves as the launching pad for both information and resource management tools and solutions. Follett Software’s legacy of innovation includes multiple awards, and a leading role in the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) initiative.
The SLIM MasterPlan component of the SLIM 7.0 Suite has been greatly enhanced to accommodate the more complex development strategies that are common to today’s software environment. For example, the development landscape for today’s enterprises often includes multiple release, multiple partners, multiple product integrations, and iterative strategies like Agile and RUP.
The new version of SLIM also provides off-the-shelf templates that enable developers to build models of many complex programs. These templates, which are based on best practice profiles from thousands of QSM consulting engagements, include Agile, off-shore, multi-release, and multi-contractor, as well as package implementation templates for SAP, PeopleSoft, and Oracle.
The concepts of systems design, modeling and reuse are all essential to both productivity and quality in today’s enterprise. Taking these concepts to a higher level, SLIM’s Available Task Component Library easily add tasks outside of the typical software development modeling process, such as systems engineering, fixed cost, milestones, system-level integration and testing, long term sustainment, and program management.
A new Global what-if Scenario Generator allows for quick assessment of the impact to any individual component on the entire program. For example, users can change team sizes, productivity assumptions or functional content, and the scenario generator calculates the impact for each program component then applies the dependence rules and displays an alternative solution.
All SLIM Suite elements are compatible with Microsoft’s Access open architecture, and allow seamless interfaces to any ODBC-compliant tool. And, all can export to and import from the latest version of MS Project, including multi-level Work Breakdown Structure [WBS] files. An improved API also facilitates the importing of statistics and other information from leading independent tool suites, such as those provided by IBM/Rational and Telelogic.
Information from independent tools, in such areas as requirements definition, design, configuration management and defect tracking, is critical to the world-class project management delivered by this newest version of the SLIM Suite. With its strong integration capabilities, SLIM delivers unparalleled project planning and management.
Backward-compatible with previous versions, SLIM Suite 7.0 is available now from QSM, its U.S. affiliate QSM Associates, and the network of QSM offices worldwide. A single-user license for SLIM 7.0 starts at $12,500.
QSM Associates, Inc. helps organizations measure, plan, estimate and control software projects. It offers the SLIM (Software Lifecycle Management) Suite of tools, so managers can benchmark and forecast Agile, waterfall, in-house, and offshore/multi-shore software projects. SLIM contains statistics from a worldwide database of more than 7,500 completed projects, enabling productivity benchmarking on the desktop. Using SLIM to dynamically run ‘virtual project simulations,” companies routinely model and forecast waterfall and Agile releases to deliver on time, within budget with > 90% estimation accuracy. SLIM can also derive ROI achieved by Agile methods and other process improvements. QSM Associates offers consulting, training, and coaching to help accelerate this capability. QSM and SLIM are registered trademarks of Quantitative Software Management. Information is available at www.QSMA.com.
Contacts:
General contact: Edward Bride, 413-442-7718 [Ed@edbride-pr.com]
QSM Associates: Sean Callaghan, 413-499-0988 x105 [sean.callaghan@qsma.com]
Posted by Mike at 12:23 PM | Comments (0)
November 4, 2008
Election Day Electricity
This November 4th day is brimming with excitement. I just returned from casting my vote, and found it interesting to use a traditional paper ballot to color in a dark circle signifying my voting choice, in this age of computers, software, and modern technology. Quite different than the last election, which used those old booths with the curtain like the Wizard of Oz. I understand they were invented in 1905, and my city still used them in the last election of 2004. (Ignore that man behind the curtain!!)
How interesting that we've "advanced" to using a piece of paper and a pencil, now that it's 2008 :)
Agile Development Conference
Speaking of exciting, next week I get to travel to every retiree's favorite Red State - Florida. [November 5th Election Update: Holy smokes!! BOTH Florida and Ohio turned BLUE! YES WE CAN!]
I'll be speaking at the Agile Development Practices Conference at the Shingle Creek Resort in Orlando. I had the privilege of Keynoting the last SQE Conference in Las Vegas, and if you're not constrained by your company's travel lockdowns in this crappy economy, I hope to see you at any one of these 4 sessions. Lee Copeland and his gang at SQE run amazing conferences, and this one promises to be even better. Here's where I plan to be:
Monday - I'm teaching a full day tutorial on "Using Metrics in Agile Environments," showing people how to do what I do using SLIM. I've taken my previous half-day session and expended it to a full day, to include estimation practices for Agile releases under tight deadlines. It got great reviews at the last Better Software Conference, so we've expanded it and made it even better. The class is virtually full, but I bet a space or two might still be available if you're interested.
Wednesday - Rally Software will be showcasing the results of a recent productivity study that QSM Associates conducted on results of using agile. We're going to give attendees an inside view of how we ran this analysis using the SLIM model and our database of 7,500 completed projects collected worldwide. This study showcases more than 30 projects from 9 companies using SCRUM and XP. I get to co-present with Richard Leavitt of Rally, who is a very dynamic and brilliant presenter.
Thursday - I'll be giving a talk entitled, "Maximizing Team Dynamics and Avoiding Dysfunction." This is a very cutting-edge talk about the people-oriented issues when teams work as closely together as in pair-programming. I plan to introduce ideas about "systems dynamics" and interpersonal interaction, bringing in concepts from my colleagues at the Harvard Negotiation Project, and the work described in a remarkable book called "Difficult Conversations."
Friday - Israel Gat, Sr. VP at BMC Software, will discuss how his team achieved results that we measured on very large Network Management releases using SCRUM, where their time-to-market was among the fastest in the QSM database. This kind of performance can be a dramatic disruptor to the status quo - rippling through engineering, marketing, and management. Being "too productive" apparently brings interesting problems. Israel is a powerful speaker, and I'll be on hand to answer questions about our work with them.
I hope to see you in Orlando!
Posted by Mike at 4:40 PM | Comments (0)