Real Time IT Budgets Versus Annual Budgets
Interesting article on Eweek. “That elusive IT budget is more elusive than ever. It looks to me like the idea of the yearly budget is totally trashed in favor of a real time budget, updated all the time and as fluid as the economic news of the day. That may not be the best way to get projects moving and completed on time, but it is the current reality.”
All the more reason to understand the realities of projects and the cost / benefits of starts and stops with SEER.
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.
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.
COTS Components in Software Development Are Not Without Effort or Risk
I have lost count of how many project that used COTS (commercial off the shelf software) components thinking they were saving huge development expense where the COTS itself was the cause of project failure.
I recall, some time ago when a super object oriented database was going to save the day, cutting development cost dramatically and exceeding requirements. Only problem is that software didn’t work. And the developer didn’t have source to fix it. And the design was wrong. And On and on.
In a less dramatic sense I look at the seemingly risk free use of COTS components of a small magnitude. For example we used a package that was an excel like plug-in one time for our custom calcs. The vendor went out of business and we lost support. We had to redevelop (this time we used real Excel) but it cost months of development work, and changes to user configurations, and technical support challenges.
And people often forget about testing of the COTS components. They will impact test effort (if you assume they just work you are likely in for a sifnificant project surprise)
Then there is the IT support of a deployed system. Your users dont care if the software is COTS, not developed by you. They want support for the system with its whole mission.
And just the cost of choosing the right (hopefully) COTS software. SEER for Software captures all these costs and risks.
Northrop published a case study showing of SEER-SEM and its COTS abilities: ”the results were remarkable”
SEER for Software’s COTS functionality provides estimates of the effort to choose, use, and deploy COTS software.
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.
Quoted in CIO Update
Dan was quoted by CIOUpdate editor Robert McGarvey in his article “The Six Winning Secrets of Project Funding”: http://www.cioupdate.com/budgets/article.php/3765086
This article discusses credibility and business value as keys to getting funding today.
Estimating Software Maintenance
SEER for Software, uses sophisticated software total ownership model modeling including all the information from development (people, process, technology, defects, scope, etc.) and specifics about the maintenance such as the rigor and amount of the software to be maintained.
The figure Maintenance Staffing Plus Block Changes illustrates how maintenance is often higher in the early years than later, assuming the system remains relatively stable. Of course block changes, major changes with significant functionality (innovation) often occur, causing increases in staffing. Those block changes are often estimated and managed as enhancements to existing systems, in addition to the maintenance. The following equation (simplified to fit the scope of this blog) approximates the steady state (staff) maintenance (when the maintenance flattens)
Figure Maintenance Staffing Plus Block Changes Read more
Earned Value Analysis Without An Achievable Plan Is Futile
I met with a group today who is looking at improving their estimation process. The story was the same as a number of other organizations. They got into earned value (EVM) in a big way. But they aren’t getting the results. The determined that they must have a viable estimate and plan as the basis of earned value. Earned value can be an extremely valuable technique for managing projects. But the baseline plan better be viable. They also spoke of having multiple baselines as the project progeessed. They grimmiced as they told me thr number of re-baselining that occurred. But it all goes back to the basic fact… you must have a viable estimate and plan to track earned value to. If you do not, it is time to rebaseline.. with a viable plan.
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.
Estimating IT Projects
SEER for IT was built to provide estimating abilities for IT Infrastructure and IT services.
SEER for Software provides the software development and maintenance portion.
Together the capture the total ownership costs of information technology systems.
