Live From UK Williams Formula 1: How SEER Made IRS Projects Successful
The US Internal Revenue Service used SEER for Software and SEER for IT to plan a major portfolio upgrade. Â They were able to catalog different types of systems in SEER-IT. Â Mitchell said if they could have done the estimates without SEER (and he didn’t think they could), it would have taken at least 10 times the effort.
This presentation will be available on www.galorath.com in a few days.
Thank you for reading “Dan on Estimating”, if you would like more information about Galorath’s estimation models, please visit our contact page or call us at +1 310 414-3222.
Live from UK Williams Formula 1: Euroclear Bank IT Support With SEER
SEER has become the keystone of Euroclear Bank’s project review process. They implemented independent estimation in addition to the project leaders’ SEER estimate and are providing support to negotiations with outsourcers.
Initially they had difficulties since project managers could not understand function points.
IT management then mandated SEER for all projects and also mandated an independent estimate.
They now have both internal function point counters and outsourced function point consultants.
Today the external team can explain the function points to the project leaders.
Euroclear found the following were the key drivers in their projects and limit usage to these in most cases:
- Size
- Team capabilities
- Location of IT management
- Development platform (knowledge base)
They are now using SEER for estimates and for monitoring project growth, at the end of the design phase and at the end of the project. This now allows them to estimate based on high level requirements.
They also collect software key performance indicators monthly.
Their lessons learned include:
- Start with a few parameters. Refine later.
- Calibrate function point counts and SEER
- Collect Final Actuals
- Must have management support
This presentation will be available on www.galorath.com in a few days
Thank you for reading “Dan on Estimating”, if you would like more information about Galorath’s estimation models, please visit our contact page or call us at +1 310 414-3222.
Live From UK Williams Formula 1: The Virtual Composites Company
Kevin Potter discussed how he teaches students using SEER within the aerospace engineering department of University of Bristol.
They use SEER in design project work where students design an airplane. They use SEER to quantify affordability as well as what are the cost drivers of the engineering work they do.
He pointed out how SEER for Manufacturing is really a design for manufacturing (DFM) application, allowing affordability trade-offs for a variety of designs.
He focused on composites materials. He pointed out that many in composites have over-emphasized the impact of touch labor versus other components of cost.
This briefing will be available on www.galorath.com in the next few days.
Thank you for reading “Dan on Estimating”, if you would like more information about Galorath’s estimation models, please visit our contact page or call us at +1 310 414-3222.
Live From UK Williams Formula 1: DSTL Estimating Future Unmanned Air Systems
DSTL uses SEER and Galorath’s new CostIQ (Case based reasoning estimation) to rapidly generate estimates of Unmanned Air Vehicles. Â They are looking to reduce costs and increase the viability of estimates.
They need to understand the trade space of different system concepts and cost them to see how far they have to relax the capability until it is affordable.
CostIQ is allowing them to generate a complete estimate and detailed Work Breakdown Structure by describing performance based characteristics of a system. Â In UAVs, for example, reusability or not, range, payload, etc. are key drivers.
The paper will be available at www.galorath.com in the next few days.
Thank you for reading “Dan on Estimating”, if you would like more information about Galorath’s estimation models, please visit our contact page or call us at +1 310 414-3222.
Live From UK Williams Formula 1: Ford Motor Company Europe Uses SEER for Software and IT
This morning Ford Motor Company’s European operation presented their development process, how estimating is improving their developments and how they tie IT infrastructure and IT services into the estimate with SEER to see the complete costs, make trade-offs and produce successful solutions. They have several gates where estimates are required and a lessons learned post mortem. In an excellent talk the speaker pointed out that even when the requirements are known, there is requirements growth. This is modeled with the SEER “requirements volatility” parameter.
The presentation will be available at www.galorath.com in the next few days.
Thank you for reading “Dan on Estimating”, if you would like more information about Galorath’s estimation models, please visit our contact page or call us at +1 310 414-3222.
Possibilistic Versus Probabilistic Estimates
I was in a cost task force meeting this morning, looking for ways to improve cost analysis in outsource environments, both from the customer and the offerer sides. These have been interesting meetings in many regards. Today the discussion focused on outsourcers who provide a low estimate, looking for the best case to win the business rather than the most probable cost.
One of the panel members pointed out that some outsources bid “possiblistic” prices rather than probabilistic prices. Possibilistic estimates are possible, if everything goes right, but everything going right is not probable.
That is one of the reasons SEER provides a range in addition to likely costs & schedule.
We recommend planning for the probable, not just the possible.
Thank you for reading “Dan on Estimating”, if you would like more information about Galorath’s estimation models, please visit our contact page or call us at +1 310 414-3222.
Software Code Counter Review and Recommendations
Galorath’s Mike Churchman did a comprehensive evaluation of numerous code counting tools and provided recommendations.
While some people may wonder why anyone would want to count code (it can be useful when estimating the amount of work in reuse as well as gaining a benchmark for estimating new code when using lines as a size measure) Mike’s evaluation is very useful. I am including only the report on the top two tools.
Recommendations:
Thank you for reading “Dan on Estimating”, if you would like more information about Galorath’s estimation models, please visit our contact page or call us at +1 310 414-3222.
Project Prediction Infographic
