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Software and Systems Development Analytics |
O X F O R D S O F T W A R E E N G I N
E E R I N G |
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“I sell here, Sir, what all the world desires to have –
Information” (with apologies to
Matthew Boulton 1728 - 1809) |
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Your organization is alive with data. It can give you an edge – if you can extract useful
information from it. The more answers you will find, the better decisions you
will make. Contemporary software development and knowledge working
environments now depend on diverse tools, from requirements management and
project management tools, to development environments, configuration
management systems, and test tools, to change logs, defect trackers and
quality assurance tools. They are widely used, essential even, for
generating, refining, sharing and amplifying information. They also capture data. These data are an unregarded and rarely used resource. But
they contain within them a multidimensional and largely undistorted picture
of your organization's activities, its character and capability, and of your
system's and product's characteristics, capacity, and value. This isn't a 'flatland' view, like that presented by so many
project management metrics sets, with their focus on schedule and budget
(which is rather like flying a plane over difficult terrain using only a
watch and the fuel gauge). Neither does it view systems quality as a matter
of defect counts. These data - your data - reflect the multifaceted
aspect of your unique and complex organization, and its systems, that those
working within it recognize and work with every day. These data, specific to your organization
and containing the signals and patterns that matter, are available now. They
are being collected, by default, as a by-product of your software development
and management activity. (And this suggests that the need for expensive and limited
measurement programmes, scorecards or clumsy KPIs, with the costs and
overheads inherent in data collection and delay in analysis, is declining as
these information rich data sets accumulate – if the information they contain
can be extracted and used.) With information taken from your own development environments
and systems empirical models become powerful management tools: you know that
adding people to a late project makes it later – but how late is late?
Commercial imperatives may demand early delivery. Do you reduce the scope, or
attempt to increase reuse, or attempt to increase productivity? Which is the
best option? What are your least risky or most effective acceleration
measures? What is it worth to know? Software and systems development data is
now so rich and pervasive it can answer previously unanswerable questions, to
reveal, share and communicate valuable insights. Guesswork and opinion can be
transformed into facts supported by data to give significant advantages: …how effective are your development
activities? Which ones are essential? Which one add value? How much? Where
should improvements be focussed? Which activities don't add value but are
never-the-less essential (enabling and ensuring conformance, say). And which
ones are irrelevant and can be discarded? ...are your organization's technical staff
and managers working to best effect? Are they able to communicate
effectively, getting the information they need to help them do their job, or
are they distracted or overloaded with inappropriate or irrelevant
information? ...is your organization building up a
technology 'bow wave', or are you delivering unnecessary functionality, or
both? You already have the data that can answer these
questions. But you have to extract the ‘technical intelligence’ - and act on
it. Software systems and software products too
contain enormous quantities of data (in fact they are data). Using
emerging analytical techniques and tools valuable information about critical
software attributes is revealed that will, if acted upon, transform software
performance and value. These data sources have the potential to provide you with the
information to make technical staff and managers more successful with: ·
a real understanding the development and support capability of your
organization; ·
an ability to make credible development
commitments; ·
effective management of complex developments,
with sound activity distribution management, earned value management, and
scope and quality management; ·
the information to align and tune software
and systems to business needs and commercial imperatives; ·
critical and searching analysis of the
impact of change initiatives or improvement programmes using specific,
credible, and accountable data to assess changes, rather than reliance on
synthetic targets or industry hype. Whatever success means in your
organization; whether you are looking to: ·
gain insights into your organization's
development capability; ·
characterize and manage your software
systems performance and value; ·
validate assessment or audit findings and
recommendations; ·
resolve development or support problems; ...we are here to help you get to the information you need. Our
software development and management experience, together with our statistical
and analytical background uniquely equips us to help you access the
information and gain the insights you need. |
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To find out how we have helped others and how we can help you
please do contact us . CCS July 2011, March 2012
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© Copyright OSEL 2012 |
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