Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Software Projects
An Executive Guide
www.construx.com
Construx
Del
ivering Software Project Success
Background
State of the Art vs. State of
the Practice
“The gap between the best software
engineering practice and the average
practice is very wide–perhaps wider than
in any other engineering discipline.”
– Fred Brooks
51-100% Late
9%
21-50% Late
Source: Standish Group Survey, 8%
1999 (from a survey of 8000
business systems projects) Less than On-Time
20% Late 26%
Construx Software (www.construx.com) 6% 5
Most Common Sources of
Cancellations and Overruns
1. Ill-defined or changing requirements
2. Poor project planning/management
3. Uncontrolled quality problems
4. Unrealistic expectations/inaccurate
estimates
5. Naive adoption of new technology
Average
Project
“Rapid”
Project
6 Months:
Nominal Schedule
Average
Project
Risk of Overrun
“Rapid”
Project
Average
Project
Risk of Overrun
“Rapid”
Project
0%
-145%
Without Historical Data
Variance between -145% to +20%
(Mostly Level 1 and 2)
20%
Over/Under Percentage
in Effort Estimates
0%
-145%
Without Historical Data With Historical Data
Variance between -145% to +20% Variance between +20% to -20%
(Mostly Level 1 and 2) (Level 3)
500%
Estimated Results
400%
300%
200%
100%
0%
0 1 2 3 4
SW-CMM Level
From a set of U.S. Air Force projects
Construx Software (www.construx.com) 27
Improved Estimation
Project Performance Compared to Estimate
600%
Actual Results as a Percentage of
500%
Estimated Results
400%
300%
200%
100%
0%
0 1 2 3 4
SW-CMM Level
From a set of U.S. Air Force projects
Construx Software (www.construx.com) 28
Improved Estimation
Project Performance Compared to Estimate
600%
Actual Results as a Percentage of
500%
Estimated Results
400%
300%
200%
100%
0%
0 1 2 3 4
SW-CMM Level
From a set of U.S. Air Force projects
Construx Software (www.construx.com) 29
Effect of Estimation
Accuracy
Underestimation Overestimation
4x
2x
1.5x
1.25x
1.0x
0.8x
0.67x
0.5x
0.25x
Time
Construx Software (www.construx.com) 34
Two-Phase Estimation and
Budgeting
Project cost
(effort and size)
4x
0.25x
Time
Construx Software (www.construx.com) 35
Benefits
v Delays commitment until time when a
commitment can be meaningful
v Forces activities that should occur upstream
actually to occur upstream
u Requirements, technical planning, quality
planning, etc.
v Helps set realistic expectations for all project
stakeholders
v Improves coordination with non-software groups
v Improves execution by putting plans on more
informed basis
Construx Software (www.construx.com) 36
Key #7
A Focus on Quality
Defect Costs Increase the
Longer Defects Stay in Process
50-200X
Cost to
Correct
50-200X
Phase That a
Defect Is Created 1X
Requirements
Architecture 1X
Detailed design
Construction
$
QA Late in QA Early in
the Project the Project
Phase That a
Defect Is Created 1X
Requirements
Architecture 1X
Detailed design
Construction
v KPMG Study:
u 55% of runaway projects did no risk
management
u 38% did some, but half of those didn’t use their
risk findings after the project was underway
u 7% didn’t know whether they did risk
management
v Total: About 80% of runaway projects did
no meaningful risk management
Contact Information
Services Software Resources
v Custom Software v info@construx.com
Solutions
v www.construx.com
v Consulting
v Seminars