Software industry performance – ‘what you measure is what you get’
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ISSN: 0740-7459
DOI Bookmark:
http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MS.2009.162
Software industry overall performance is uneven and at first sight puzzling. Delivery to time and budget is notoriously bad and productivity shows limited improvement over time, yet quality can be amazingly good. Customers largely bear the costs of the poor aspects of performance. Many factors drive this performance. This paper explores connections which suggest there may be causal links between (a) the commonly-used performance metrics, estimating methods and processes, (b) the incentives placed on suppliers, and (c) the resulting observed performance. The paper proposes a set of possible improvements to current metrics and estimating methods and processes, and concludes that software professionals must educate their customers on the levers that are available to obtain a better all-round performance from their suppliers.
Index Terms:
D.2.1 Requirements/Specifications, D.2.18.c Process measurement, D.2 Software Engineering, D.2.17.b Code design, D.2.18.c Process measurement, D.2.4.d Formal methods, D.2.5.k Testing strategies, D.2.8.c Process metrics, D.2.9.h Productivity, D.2.8 Metrics/Measurement, D.2.9 Management, D.2.18 Software Engineering Process, D.2.5.a, D.2.19, D.2.8.d, D.2.8.b Performance measures, D.2.9.b Cost estimation, D.2.9.h Productivity, D.2.9.p Time estimation, D.2.19 Software Quality/SQA,
Citation:
Charles Symons, "Software industry performance – ‘what you measure is what you get’," IEEE Software, 01 Sept. 2009. IEEE computer Society Digital Library. IEEE Computer Society, <http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/MS.2009.162>
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