Step Eight: Generate A Project Plan
The process of generating a project plan includes taking the estimate and allocating the cost and schedule to a function and task-oriented work breakdown structure. Models such as SEER Client for Microsoft perform this function automatically. The eight major software development phases
are: (1) concept, (2) acquisition, (3) requirements, (4) design, (5) code and unit test, (6) integration, (7) acceptance, and (8) post deployment.
Determining Costs from Effort Estimates
At this point in the estimation process, you should have a reasonably accurate projection of your project’s size and required effort, that is, an estimate of the number of person-hours by component and a sum of these projections, and you can now begin to price the estimate. As software estimation models generally account only for costs related directly to development, you may need to translate the required effort to a cost and finalize the estimate by adding in essential nonlabor costs. You can do so by answering the following questions:
What types of individuals do I need and when do I need them?
Identify the specific personnel requirements by task area (direct software management, software systems engineering, design, programming, configuration management, quality assurance, etc.). Develop a strawman schedule from the work breakdown structure or a staffing plan such as the one produced by SEER-SEM.
How experienced do they have to be? Assign specific staff levels to the task requirements and identify the level of experience required to satisfy the task. Some of the automated cost models will identify the tasks and develop a task-based schedule, which will minimize but not eliminate all of the work required to produce the software development plan.
IEEE Publishes New Software Failure Study: Less than 20% Failed
This new article , “A Replicated Survey of IT Software Project Failures” in IEEE Software Sept 2008 suggests that the percent of canceled projects is less than 20% and that it is not appropriate to call software a crisis. “There’s a general decreasing trend over time, with the most recent estimates mostly below the 20-percent level.” I recommend the article and IEEE software in general. The article sites many studies of cancellation:
| Cancellation / Abandonment % | |
| Standish 1994 | 31% |
| Standish 1996 | 40% |
| Standish 1998 | 28% |
| Jones 1998 systems | 14% |
| Jones 1998 military | 19% |
| Jones 1998 other | >24% |
| Standish 2000 | 23% |
| Standish 2002 | 15% |
| Computer Weekly 2003 | 9% |
| UJ 2003 | 22% |
| Standish 2004 | 18% |
| Standish 2006 | 19% |
Software Project Failure Costs Billions.. Better Estimation & Planning Can Help
There are so many studies attempting to quantify the cost of software failures. They don’t agree on percentages but they generally agree that the number is at least 50 to 80 billion dollar range annually.
