Dean_Thompson@TRANSARC.COM (05/25/90)
I am the manager of software engineering for a medium-sided development project (as in tens of people). Like everyone in similar positions, I sometimes have to defend the manpower I expend on things like tool building, tracking and estimation, and debugging assistance. Can anyone refer me to authoritative sources that concisely, compellingly, and maybe even quantitatively evaluate the impact on project efficiency of different levels of investment in these areas? Dean Thompson dt@transarc.com
marick@m.cs.uiuc.edu (05/30/90)
> [...] I sometimes have to defend the manpower I expend on things like > tool building, tracking and estimation, and debugging assistance. > > Can anyone refer me to authoritative sources that concisely, compellingly, > and maybe even quantitatively evaluate the impact on project efficiency of > different levels of investment in these areas? Some estimation models include the effects of these kinds of things. You might be able to play "What If" scenarios with them. I don't know if the models would make for particularly compelling arguments -- there are all kinds of applicability problems -- but they'd sure be quantitative. Cocomo is probably the best-known model -- see Boehm's Software Engineering Economics, Prentice-Hall, 1981. Once upon a time, there was a freeware version of Cocomo floating around, but I haven't heard of it for years. There are also companies that sell similar estimation/modelling services/tools, but I don't remember the names. Another tack is to ask what your competitors and potential competitors are doing and why. There was a short survey article about trends in competitive analysis in "The Economist" within the past couple months. I don't remember if it had pointers to other articles or books. This approach is not concise, probably not quantitative, and only compelling under the right circumstances. Brian Marick Motorola @ University of Illinois marick@cs.uiuc.edu, uiucdcs!marick
ofut@hubcap.clemson.edu (A. Jeff Offutt) (05/31/90)
From article <0aLHNBr0BwwA0b92gS@transarc.com>, by Dean_Thompson@TRANSARC.COM: > I am the manager of software engineering for a medium-sided development > and maybe even quantitatively evaluate the impact on project efficiency of The issue is not always *efficiency*, but *quality*. -- Jeff Offutt Department of CS, Clemson University, Clemson SC (803) 656-5882 Internet: ofut@clemson.edu