http://www.galorath.com/wp Estimation . Analysis . Planning . Control Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:26:17 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en SEI people are battling the "Process for process sake" syndrome. CMMI is really trying to invoke a set of best practices. The level is not the goal. When CMM (CMMI's predecessor) was first developed the Government promised that the CMM level would not be used to judge organization in contract award. ... http://www.galorath.com/wp/cmmi-challenges-being-addressed-process-is-as-process-does.php At the CMMI conference a number of difficulties with high maturity, CMMI levels 4 & 5 quantified management. Some included incorrect use of standard statistical techniques for example: Too few data points Updating control charts too infrequently Bad formulas in control level calculations Trying to statistically manage inappropriately Using aggregated data Presenting baselines as stable when ... http://www.galorath.com/wp/many-observed-incorrect-implementations-of-cmmi-high-maturity.php I thought these slides from Galorath's David Dewitt covering estimating agile systems in SEER were interesting, showing which SEER parameters deal with which Agile characteristics. SEER handles agile developments out of the box. David used SEER to estimate and manage Agile projects as a software project manager before he joined ... http://www.galorath.com/wp/mapping-agile-principals-to-seer-for-software-seer-sem.php Dan will be giving two papers at the CMMI conference in Denver and will be available for consultation during the Tuesday and Wednesday Nov 18 and 19. 1. Improving Project Planning and Control: A 10-Step Process Within CMMI or other Process Orientations Click Here  2. CMMI's Role in Reducing Total Cost of ... http://www.galorath.com/wp/dan-at-cmmi-conference-in-denver-nov-18-19.php 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 ... http://www.galorath.com/wp/2009-it-spending-generally-flat.php The following summarizes the report prepared by Galorath's Dr. Tarbet on the process of building specific Knowledge Bases and validation of SEER for Software (SEER-SEM) for the Salesforce.com platform (Force.com). Force.com enables you to deliver enterprise-class Web applications on demand—without the cost of deploying infrastructure, supporting the software-as-a-service paradigm (SaaS). ... http://www.galorath.com/wp/how-galorath-quantified-the-salesforcecom-platform-with-seer-for-software-seer-sem.php As Fredrick Brooks said "there are no silver bullets." Unfortunately the software industry continues to tout every incremental step as that silver bullet which will solve the problems of software development. Don't get me wrong. SOA when applied in the appropriate environment can improve productivity. Galorath analysts have been using ... http://www.galorath.com/wp/some-gottchas-of-estimating-service-oriented-architecture-systems-soa.php Altera used SEER for Hardware Electronics and Systems to quantify the business case for FPGAs  The results were published in ECN Asia.   Part of the case study follows: "In order to illustrate potential design productivity savings in an optimized design flow, a sample FPGA-based design was developed and measured with a third-party ... http://www.galorath.com/wp/seer-quantifies-savings-on-military-fpgas-custom-chips.php I was in an ISO review today at Galorath Inc.  I saw customer satisfaction scores that were through the roof (in a good way.)  I saw compliments (from the ISO compliments file) that were flattering.  I asked about the complaints file (also an ISO requirement)  I was told we had ... http://www.galorath.com/wp/effectiveness-measurement-at-galorath-stilll-focusing-on-the-positive.php 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 ... http://www.galorath.com/wp/don%e2%80%99t-measure-everything.php