Using the SEER Effective Technology for Productivity Assessment and Benchmarking

January 14, 2009 · Filed Under General, Software Estimating  - 0 Comment(s)

While I prefer to use productivity (which consolidates everything about the project)  as the main measure…  SEER allows, and some users prefer to  use a “productivity index” (SEER refers to this as effective technology) to compare their propensity for productivity independent of size, complexity, constraints, etc. 

Summary

The SEER-SEM Effective Technology Metric (ETC) reflects a developer’s propensity for productivity independent of size, complexity or constraints. Some organizations refer to this as a productivity index (PI). It can be used to benchmark against industry, to evaluate one project versus another and report an organization versus industry (competition) to management.

SEER-SEM will provide an effective technology (ETC) as an output of the 34 technology and environment parameters, allowing for explanation and sensitivity analysis. For example, how much better would my team’s propensity for productivity be if the requirements were stable or if we had faster hardware.


Figure 1 Example Effective Technology

The SEER-SEM Effective Technology Metric is on a scale from 3 to 20,000. The higher the number on the scale the more productive a development team can be. Some typical ranges for the Effective Technology Metric:

                         Figure 2 Example Actual Effective Technology

Business/Commercial    2,500 to 5,000

Aerospace/Defense    1,000 to 4,000

Telecom/Comm         3,682 to 4,094

 

Figure 2 shows an actual effective technology computed automatically from a completed project.

A second benchmark opportunity is the Basic Technology Metric. This may be used to show the organization independent of the particular development. (i.e. independent of the development environment, target environment, documentation, test, and quality assurance.) Basic technology ranges from 1,800 to 20,000.

SEER Constantly Measures Effective Technology (Productivity Index) Compared To Industry Range

SEER constantly benchmarks this value for comparison against an “average” developer via the Estimate Assessment. Green means this is within the expected range for the particular knowledge bases chosen, yellow means look carefully, it is unusual, and red says this should be questioned since it is out of range for projects of this type. See the chart below:

 

Effective Technology May Be Explored In Further Detail

This effective technology benchmark can be further broken down into the six individual categories that make up the Effective Technology Metric. This allows the analyst to identify a specific area – if any, that is causing the Effective Technology Metric to be outside the “normal” range.

SEER Metrics and Databases Benchmark Effective Technology Via HistoGram

The latest enhancement to the SEER Metrics and Benchmarking, combined with industry databases available from Galorath, will allow display and tracking of effective technology compared to industry. (This enhancement is currently in an alpha version.) 

SEER Provides Additional Basic Technology Metric to Benchmark the Organization Independent of the Entire Problem

A second benchmark opportunity is the Basic Technology Metric. This may be used to show the organization independent of the particular development. (i.e. independent of the development environment, target environment, documentation, test, and quality assurance.)

 


  

SEER Basic Flow Illustrates Use of Effective Technology

The following diagram is the highest level view of SEER. Note the effective technology called out is the propensity for productivity independent of size, complexity or other constraints. Some people call this a “productivity index”

Of further interest, the “effective complexity” is the effective staffing rate. Some people refer to this as a manpower buildup.

Numerous Analysis Are Available

The following shows one of the many different kinds of analysis that are available. Here we can see that in the database there is no trend between the effective size versus the effective technology:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 People who are accustomed to using producitivy index as a metric (such as used by QSM SLIM) will find SEER provides that insight and a great deal more.

 

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  2. List of Documents On Software Productivity
  3. Software Staff Size Still Impacts Productivity: Brooks Law Lives!
  4. Improving Productivity By Reducing Rework
  5. Software Development Metrics At Galorath: Co-located Teams Are Still Most Efficient

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