How Galorath Quantified the Salesforce.com Platform With SEER For Software (SEER-SEM)

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). This was customer funded (by a potential user of salesforce.com).

Galorath established a technical interface with internal Salesforce experts, consultants with extensive experience developing software in the Salesforce.com Platform, and with current users of the on-demand SaaS capabilities provided by the platform. From the technical discussions, preliminary analyses of expected effort impacts on the software development effort for an IT project were derived. A Salesforce.com Platform Knowledge Base and a language definition for the APEX language has been developed for SEER-SEM from the technical inputs.

Bottom Line 30% to 40% Savings:The model indicates that effort can be expected to be reduced from 30% to 40% over developing the same project in JAVA for projects that are aligned to the Customer Relations Management model, which serves as the basis for the Salesforce.com Platform  Galorath has a white paper covering the salesforce.com / force.com approach and findings available by registering..

Technical approach

 Based on interviews with each of the technical contacts, Galorath developed a basis for productivity estimation for projects implemented in the SalesForce.com platform as compared to typical Object Oriented Development of an IT project in JAVA.  Experts included:

• Technical experts from within Salesforce
  
• Technical experts from consulting companies that have multiple years experience in providing On-Demand solutions and in particular, experience within the Salesforce.com platform
  
• Technical experts from both Government and private sector who are utilizing the Salesforce.com platform to develop internal IT applications.
  

In addition, the technical interchange provided insight into required characteristics of people who would develop in the SalesForce.com platform, the characteristics of the proprietary language (APEX), and the expected characteristics of the development environment, the target environment, and the security aspects of operations utilizing a web based browser.

Galorath established a custom setting for the SEER-SEM parameters to reflect the initial input from the technical community relating to developer capabilities, development systems, and language implications. That set of parameter settings are provided as a “Custom Knowledge Base” in the SEER-SEM model. This knowledge base is available to all SEER users of SEER-SEM version 7.3.

Sizing for applications in the SaaS environment is expected to be developed in Function Points or Function Based Sizing utilizing SEER-SEM tools for counting. In addition to Function Points, Use Cases may be utilized to develop initial project sizing analysis.

To effectively model development within the Force.com platform, the size is input into the parameter “Re-use Functions, Not Designed for Re-use.” The rework percentage parameters are established by the SalesForce.com Platform Knowledge Base. The derivation of the initial rework parameters is documented below.

Development of an On-Demand application is potentially improved by the use of available software from the Force.com platform exchange (Appexchange). Developers have the opportunity to instantiate completed software applications into an available library of completed and tested programs which are then available to the general user population.

The modeling of the applications that are to be satisfied by existing software from the Appexchange were modeled with the SEER-SEM COTS Quick Size. A small integration software package was assumed to be required to provide the APEX code to effectively satisfy the API for the off-the-shelf software component to be acquired from the Appexchange.

APEX, the proprietary Salesforce.com platform language has been added to the language definitions within SEER-SEM

APEX is similar in syntax to JAVA, however the built in constraints of the language are expected to yield higher programmer productivity in APEX than is expected in JAVA. Constraints include:

1. In order to perform adequately in a multi-tenant environment, Force.com applies governors to APEX code that significantly limits the size and complexity of the individual code components.
   
2. APEX provides built in support for Force.com objects that reduces the traditional impedance mismatch between Java and SQL.
   
3. APEX does not provide UI services or support external web service calls, the primary focus is to provide data oriented transactional services – more like Stored Procedures in Oracle or SQL Server.
   

A set of 3 projects with actual results have been defined to provide metrics

Project Applications Suited for the SalesForce.com Platform

For applications that are consistent with the target SalesForce.com Platform applications, the platform supplies a large amount of business infrastructure; not just the hardware and software infrastructure.

The platform provides the ability to create many business functions declaratively.  For example, many business processes can be implemented with workflow – which you create with point-and-click operations in a matter of minutes with no actual programming.  The ability to create rapid prototype solutions to validate user requirements at early stages of the Use Case Model significantly enhances the requirements analysis and preliminary design phases of development in the platform environment. Built in capabilities include: Forms Management, Relational Database, Reporting and Analytics, Workflow and Approvals, Audit and Compliance, and Data Security and Sharing.

Specific IT applications that are well suited for the platform include:

1. People Centered processes such as:
   
   1. Customer Relationship Management
      
   2. Customer Service Case Management
      
   3. Administrative Services
      
2. Functional Automation such as:
   
   1. Departmental focus
      
   2. First time automation
      
   3. System replacement
      
   4. Business record processing
      
3. Innovation for:
   
   1. New services
      
   2. New information access
      
   3. New business capabilities
      

Findings

1. The model indicates that effort can be expected to be reduced from 30% to 40% over developing the same project in JAVA for projects that are aligned to the Customer Relations Management model, which serves as the basis for the Salesforce.com Platform.
   
2. For applications that are consistent with the built in capabilities of the Salesforce.com Platform, there appears to be about an 80% reduction in the actual development effort. Because of the ability to create with point-and-click operations to support prototyping, the requirements and design effort is reduced with estimates ranging from 10% to 25%.
   
3. In addition, testing, which is still required, is reduced because of the robustness of the built in capabilities that have been extensively proven in other applications by an estimated 5% to 20%.

The salesforce knowledge base and APEX are mentioned in the SEER for Software 7.3 press release as well.

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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.

Related Posts Computer Generated

• The Cost of Cloud in the Sky Computing Part 1
• Lines of Code Versus Functon Points Versus Use Cases For Sizing
• Why SEER Got Started
• Using the SEER Effective Technology for Productivity Assessment and Benchmarking
• Step Four: Software Sizing

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