2009 IT Spending: Generally Flat
According to research published by Computer Economics, Inc. on 2009 IT spending:
about 34% of IT organizations have cut 2009 budget
About 11% have increased IT budgets
About 54% have no change in budget from 2008
Doing more with the same or less requires better project and operations planning. That is why SEER for Software and SEER for IT are used by organizations looking to optimize their productivity within scarce budgets.
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
Audits Improve Processes
I know not many people like an audit. Brings up thoughts of people trying to show you made a mistake.
But I just received a notice of our upcoming ISO 9001:2000 audit and I am thrilled. While we deal with processes each day, it is productive to take some time and ensure we are doing out best and to look for ways to do things later.
Part of proper management is reducing waste, seeing things that are done that don’t add value and eliminating them.
Another part of such an audit is seeing where people are doing well and making sure the whole company uses that best practice.
Initially the goal is just to have a process, even if it isnt the best. Then to refine the process(es) to reflect best practices.
At yesterday;s best practice seminar someone discussed waste, and looking to eliminate waste within the organization. I look at some of the simplest things many organizations do that are waste and can be eliminated… Pens handed out at conferences (do we think people don’t show up with writing implements, or that the cheap pens are going to win any gratitude.) Whether you are dealing with CMMI, ISO 9000, ITIL, or whatever process approach.. look for ways to eliminate waste. And remember “the enemy of the best is the good”
Oh Glorious Day.. Weapons System Decisions To Be Made Based On Total Life Cycle Costs
The October 13 2008 issue of Federal Times has a story Titled “Better Estimates Urged for Weapons Programs” about John Young, Pentagon Acquisition Executive and his movement for “establishing life cycle metrics early in the acquisition process”
Galorath has been preaching evaluating total ownership costs, not just development, for years. And we understand the pressures to “get it out in the field to support the warfighter” Using all the SEER products such as SEER for Hardware, Electronics and Systems support total ownership costs and tradeoff analysis to determine the most effective system design and architecture from a set of alternatives.
We all realize that there are other issues beyond just total ownership cost to keeping our country and those in harms’ way safe. And I know that combining estimating of total ownership costs early and often can support that goal.
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.
People Make a Difference In Projects
Ed Yourdon, one of my lifetime heroes, posted a presentation in his blog on Peopleware. I thought it was a bit odd at first because the book Peopleware was written by someone else. But Ed, being the visionary he is, brings it all to life. The following is Ed’s assessment of personnel performance on projects and the impacts they have on productivity.
Estimating IT Personnel and Issues of A Down Economy
Historically IT has been more stable in a down economy than the job market at large. We still need to keep the business running and there are usually value to the business considerations that keep software development going. IT employment is a near record high levels. Still, with the issues in banking and Wall Street, the offshore outsourcers are going to be hurting. Some reports say Wall Street employed a third of outsourced IT. And organizations such as the now defunct Lehman were in the forefront of IT innovation. .
So.. expect some bargains from offshore.
This chart from CIO Insight shows the strength of IT employment in the US:
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7 Characteristics of Dysfunctional Software Projects
From Mike Evans, Coauthor of my book on Software Sizing, and Risk Management while studying over 350 projects:
- Failure to Apply Essential Project Management Practices
- Unwarranted Optimism and Unrealistic Management Expectations
- Failure to Implement Effective Software Processes
- Premature Victory Declarations
- Lack of Program Management Leadership
- Untimely Decision-Making
- Lack of Proactive Risk Management
Who Needs Standardized Spelling
A good friend and well meaning associate recently suggested that with my lousy typing and miserable spelling and grammar that I should have BLOG entries edited before going live. While I question the need for standardized spelling (not really but this sounds better than “I can’t spell”) I believe that would be the end of the stream of conscious, any topic (within scope) goes BLOG. I don’t want to deal with people editing, changing meaning, with time delays and generally losing control.
So, I will continue to BLOG on-line. My apologies for spelling and grammar errors. BLOGS happen any time, day or night, and the blog software’s spelling checker is nearly unusable.
I do, however, appreciate when someone tells me of my misdeed and do go back and clean up BLOG entries when I hear of typos.
Development Intelligence
How I love that phrase “Development Intelligence”, patterned after business intelligence. Unfortunately it appears Borland has got a lock on that phrase.
But the concept of continuous measurement and the ability to use metrics to proactively manage and monitor a software development project is so valuable.
I was recently discussing an automated QA tool with someone who had looked at it. It had several hundred rules for quality software. It even used McCabe’s complexity metric. Those were good things. Only problem is they run it at the end of a project, not during, for example when a single programmer’s work is being checked in or even before when something can still be done be done about quality issues. Congratulations, the 4000 function point application you just took ownership of violates 117 quality rules. What do I do with that except negotiate in an outsource environment.
But continuous Development Intelligence. Imagine, a developer skips a standard, or whose code is on immediately understandable… And ti getting flagged before check-in. The vast majority of developers want to do a good job and a tool that helps them find and catch quality errors sounds like a significant total ownership cost improvement.
