The Cost Vs Benefit of Additional Bandwidth
You can never be too thin, too rich, or have too much bandwidth. As I think back over the years, from my original 30 character per second modem, to the big jump to 1200, then 2400 (240 Characters per Second) BAUD modems (SEER for Software was originally developed by a disbursed team using 2400 BAUD modems) to megabits of bandwidth.
We learned some years ago that speed was not the only consideration, but reliability was key as well. Once we had a DSL line that went down. 3 day turnaround to fix. Then a T1 vendor (high reliability 1.5megabits) who got in a fight with the phone company and got our line along with all their customers shut down.
We are making the big jump, once again in El Segundo, going from a t1 to a bonded t1 (3megabits)
And how will that impact productivity? Experience tells us there will be a few miserable days when the change brings the company to its knees (we have people scattered about the free world.) Our staff offered to run SEER-IT and estimate the project but I really didn’t want to know… we are going to go ahead and we know it will be ugly. Then, after the misery we expect to be servicing our remote employees twice as fast as we do now. Of course none of them will be happy since the average bandwidth in homes is still higher than 3megabits.
The Mistake of Measuring Everything
I recently participated in a seminar with Larry Dribin of Pearl Street Group. Larry did a beautiful job with a talk called something like “You Get What You measure” Afterwards I added the corollary “If you measure everything you get nothing”
I have seen a number of organizations that just start measuring everything. They figure they will do something with the measurements sometime. Measurement becomes a burden with no ROI. And people can’t respond by doing the best job on what they are measured against. Read more
Bad Assumptions Invalidate Business Value and ROI Analysis
I recent email announced “ROI estimates in business fail primarily because managers give too much attention to the “payout” odds and too little attention to measuring and managing “probability” odds. A good risk and sensitivity analysis of the assumptions behind the predictions allows you to do both. ”
This is so true. Inappropriate or unlikely assumptions looking for payout based on the absurd (such as assuming that saving 1 minute per day of employees filling in their time card has a huge savings in a year) and a myriad of other traps cause business value and ROI to be appropriately produced using sound business case analysis.
In the same vein, absurd assumptions can cause cost and schedule estimates to be low. SEER evaluates the viability of assumptions, helping produce estimates that can actually be deployed.
New SEER Functionality, Like a Kid in a Candy Store
It is interesting as the company has grown over the years and as i have gotten further and further from day to day software requirements and design, to see some of the amazing functionality coming out of our development group. Sometimes it makes me feel like a kid in a candy store.
I was struck by the newest version of the metrics and benchmarking. A Histogram in addition to a scatter plot. This is so handy. And nearly a surprise to me. (I did know they were doing it but didn’t see it until beta time)
I see some of the global estimation abilities that have gone into SEER for Hardware Electronics and Systems. Very nice!!!. Makes trades even faster. And these I didnt know about until they were in the shipping product.
For SEER for IT, the newest scenario functionality is beautifully executed. Generate an entire IT system estimate by using a pattern and answering a few questions. I never saw this improved version until release.
And the Far out project… estimates unmanned spacecraft far out into the future. i just played with it a few weeks ago. It was released months ago. Very interesting.
Even some of our unreleased projects such as xippr (code name, ask and you can find out details) Amazing in its ability to ferret out project issues and potential problems.
And our top secret project… Amazing as I occasionally get glimpses into the builds.
As our processes continue to tighten (ISO 9001:2000 review coming up next month) I will be invited to attend more reviews… some of the fun surprises will disappear for me. I love seeing SEER evolve. Hats off to the development group.
Medical Equipment Manufacturer Saves 500,000 Euros With SEER
A detailed case study is being prepared but I was so excited about this finding I thought I would publish it here first.
A major European Medical Equipment manufacturer identified a million Euros of potential savings with SEER. They have now been implementing those and report that that have a REALIZED SAVINGS of 500,000 Euros in the first year.
We hear about cost savings and project successes all the time. And it is wonderful that this organization will make this public. That is what SEER is about achievable plans and cost savings. Hats off to this organization and I look forward to the actual case study with attribution in the very near future.
I repeat my thought here that if the entire US industry used SEER it could create a meaningful change in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as well.
Banking and Mergers and IT… Oh My
Watching the chaos going on in the economy, the overnight mergers, the bankruptcies, and other tragedies in the US and in the world makes me shiver thinking about how all these IT systems are going to work together, or work at all. I heard that the value in some of these organizations is their IT infrastructure (we have said for years that banks are big IT companies with money as their product…. this bears it out) This is the time when SEER for Software and SEER for IT can really help save the day with project and operations planning in this consolidation environment.
Understand the costs of data conversion, how many help desk people will be needed to support the newer, bigger organization, how to dispose of unneeded assets. And having open eyes of the cost and schedule risks are essential.
I saw an article today stating that the current economic issues have stalled 2009 IT planning. This is not the time for stalling. This is the time for increased planning and risk management. I realize stalling buys time to see how things shake out. But planning for alternate scenarios can be extremely effective as well.
Government IT Project Woes and Estimating Total Ownership Costs
A recent government report showed 81% of budget or $57 billion in IT projects in danger of failing. Detailed reports on the hearings can be found here. Of 413 IT projects identified by OMB and federal agencies NEARLY 80% OF THEM WERE IDENTIFIED AS HAVING BEEN POORLY PLANNED. The scorecard for IT projects shows much progress but much work left to do.
Some of our recent analysis of IT costs seems to indicate that software development may be the smallest of four components:
1. Software Development
2. Software Maintenance
3. IT Infrastructure
4. IT Services
In this example sanitized system we see software development costs (the costs many track the most.. and for good reason.. these are the highest risk items) were about 10% of the total cost of ownership. Meta analysis shows IT Infrastructure & services can be 60% or more of the system’s total ownership cost.
Forrester’s Five Essential Metrics for Managing IT
A recent report by Craig Symons of Forrester identified 5 core metrics for managing IT. This paper is full of wisdom such as “metrics for its performance must measure relevance and business impact”… effectiveness metrics rather than operationally focused metrics such as downtime.
1. Alignment of IT Investments to Business Strategy (shows how IT projects meet business strategy goals & how not all projects are mandatory))
2. Cumulative Business Value of IT Investment (shows not all projects are equal)
3. IT Spend Ratio - New Versus Maintenance
4. Critical Business Service Availability (Linked to applications or services, not generic technology)
5. Operational Health (Reliability, Safety & Security, Quality Project Execution)
This research note is currently available for free download as a special promotion (requiring registration) from a third party company.
SEER for Information Technology provides the ability to answer most of these metrics questions in quantified, risk adjusted manner.
SEER for IT: The Making of a New Product and Lessons learned
Measurement certainly requires looking to the past to learn of the future. But there is a huge amount to be learned from the lessons learned themselves. Looking back on the SEER for IT development there are several lessons learned that go beyond just the measurements. Read more
