ITMPI

What Is the State of IT Risk Management 10 Years On?

soules — Tue, 07 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

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The World in 2030

soules — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

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Click here to join the ITMPI as a Premium Member!

Software Engineering Improvements Possible by 2019

soules — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

The Technical and Social History of Software Engineering

soules — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Changes to the 5th Edition of the PMBOK®

soules — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

The Great IT Professional

soules — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Advanced PDU Accredited Courseware from the ITMPI - up to 90 PDUs! - March Promotional

soules — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

ITMPI's Advanced IT Courseware

The ITMPI's advanced IT courseware will take your IT professional development to a new level. These detailed multi-phase learning modules give you an easy to use, comprehensive, and streamlined approach for immersion in a variety of subject areas.

March Promotion: Purchase an ITMPI premium membership from us at www.itmpi.org/subscribe between now and March 31, 2013 and you will receive a coupon for 50% off any/all of our advanced IT courses. Coupon can be used as many times as you want between now and March 31st. Premium memberships will entitle you to unlimited complimentary access to our vast PDU accredited recording library at www.itmpi.org/catalog as well as unlimited complimentary PDUs on all of our recorded and live webinars.

Special Bonus: Purchase FIVE or more of our advanced IT courses at any one time and you will receive an additional 20% off!

Advanced courses include:
Roadmap to Success: Foundation for Requirements Development & Management (10 PDUs).

Project Management Best Practices (7.5 PDUs)

Exploring User Requirements with Use Cases (5.75 PDUs)

In Search of Excellent Requirements (10.25 PDUs).

Requirements Engineering (2.5 PDUs).

Software Requirements: An Executive Overview (1.5 PDUs)

Writing High-Quality Requirements (7 PDUs)

"Low Calorie" Lean Six Sigma DMAIC (Green Belt) – (32 PDUs)

Capers Jones on Breakthrough Performance: Best Practices Integration (8 PDUs)

Software Inspections and Peer Reviews (5.75 PDUs)

Read more about our advanced PDU accredited IT courseware, browse our course outlines, and take video previews at itmpi.org/courseware.

Purchase your premium ITMPI membership today and meet all of your PDU needs for the year with one simple click!

The Future of Learning

soules — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT

TITANIC Project Management Blunders

soules — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT

The One-Page Project Manager: Communicate and Manage any Project with a Single Piece of Paper

Site of the Week

Free Project Management Resources

Top 10 Leadership Qualities of a Project Manager

soules — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

New Research from Capers Jones: Software Defect Origins and Removal Methods

soules — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

What We Can Learn from NASA's Project Managers

soules — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Forty Years of Project Management

soules — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT

For the week of December 18, 2012

The Future of Project Management

soules — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT

A 50 Year History of Software Disasters

soules — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Gamification and Project Management

soules — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Agile Project Management and the State of Agile

soules — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

12 Common Project Management Mistakes

soules — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

10 Strategic CIO Priorities for 2013

soules — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Project Management at the "C" Level

soules — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Life in the C-lane Will Surely Make You Lose Your Mind

soules — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I've Inherited 200,000 Lines of Spaghetti Codes: Now What?

soules — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

20 IT Gotchas That Could Derail Your Career (and 5 Ways to Escape)

soules — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

IT Risk Management: Looking Ahead and Fixing the Monsters While They are Small!

soules — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 00:04:00 GMT

Top 10 Countries with the Highest PMP Salaries

soules — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 14:26:29 GMT

What is the Value of PMP Certification?

soules — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:48:00 GMT

Future CIO

host — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:00:00 GMT

10 Predictions for What the CIO Role will Look like in 2020

host — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:49:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"The outward work will never be puny if the inward work is great."
- Meister Eckhart

10 Predictions for What the CIO Role will Look like in 2020

CIOs can expect their jobs to change dramatically by the decade's end, with increased roles in business planning, cyber security, robot management and, of course, the cloud.

Click here to read "10 Predictions for What the CIO Role will Look like in 2020"!

Google CIO: Cloud Tipping Point is at Hand

The economics of cloud computing are driving down the cost structure of business so far and so fast that it’s scary, says Ben Fried, Google CIO. Read more in this Wall Street Journal article. (1 page).

Click Here to Read "Google CIO: Cloud Tipping Point is at Hand"!

The New IT Operating Model

IT organizations have conventionally operated under an ‘own and operate’ model in they buy or build the hardware and software needed to construct essential business systems. The inevitable consequences of the ‘own and operate’ model are large data centers, 24×7 operations teams and small armies of developers maintaining systems built on a bewildering array of outdated technologies. Cloud computing – in all its various forms – offers a serious challenge to the conventional ‘own and operate’ model. Find out more in this Forbes article by Mark Settle, CIO for BMC Software. (5 pages)

Click Here to Read "The New IT Operating Model"!

Book of the Week

CIOs at Work
by Ed Yourdon

In CIOs at Work, noted author Ed Yourdon interviews many of the world's most influential chief information officers. You will gain insights from the first CIO of the USA, take a peek into the future with the CIO at Google, learn the unique role IT plays in testing Microsoft applications, and much more.

Yourdon focuses on how his interviewees tackle the day-to-day work of managing information in their organizations while revealing much more: How they got there, how they manage and allocate resources, and how they interact with business units and assure that their companies take advantage of technologies and automation to make employees even more productive. Surveying a variety of unique corporations, you'll get a great sense of what can be done and what is being done now in organizations around the world.

Featured CIOs: Ben Fried, Google; Tony Scott, Microsoft; Monte Ford, American Airlines; Mittu Sridhara, Ladbrokes; Steve Rubinow, NYSE; Lew Temares (retired), University of Miami; Mark Mooney, McGraw-Hill; Dan Wakeman, Educational Testing Services; Lynne Ellen, Detroit Energy; Becky Blalock, Southern Company; Ken Bohlen, Arizona Public Services; Roger Gurnani, Verizon; Ashish Gupta, British Telecom; Joan Miller, U.K. Parliament; Vivek Kundra, (first CIO), U.S. Government; Paul Strassmann, (retired), Kraft Foods

CIOs at Work

What the BP Disaster Can Teach Us About Management

host — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:39:00 GMT

Architecture is Architecture is Architecture

host — Tue, 01 May 2012 09:21:00 GMT

Exploring IT Architecture

host — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:55:00 GMT

IT Strategy and Architecture

host — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:41:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"Belief is the death of intelligence."
- Robert Anton Wilson

What Does Developing an IT Strategy Mean?

A weak IT strategy can be costly and wasteful, especially for resource-constrained organizations that operate with minimal budget, tools, knowledge and people. It also implies that organizations cannot respond to changing business requirements rapidly enough. The absence of strategic anticipation causes organizations to be inefficiently reactive, forcing them to work in a constant state of catch-up. In this article by Serge Thorn, you will learn how to address this challenge. (8 pages)

Click Here to Read "What Does Developing an IT Strategy Mean?"!

Your Quick Guide to Successful Cloud Architecture

There is no guarantee for cloud deployment success -- but there's a path that can strongly increase the odds. Learn more in this article by David Linthicum. (6 pages)

Click Here to Read "Your Quick Guide to Successful Cloud Architecture"

The Rise of the Enterprise Architect

It is the role of the enterprise architect (EA) and his team to both define and deliver a technical roadmap that supports the short and long-term strategic objectives of the business. Learn more in this article by Daljit Roy Banger. (4 pages)

Click Here to Read "The Rise of the Enterprise Architect"

Book of the Week

The SIM Guide to Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise architecture is leading IT's way to the executive boardroom, as CIOs are now taking their place at the management table. Organizations investing their time, money, and talent in enterprise architecture (EA) have realized significant process improvement and competitive advantage. However, as these organizations discovered, it is one thing to acquire a game-changing technology but quite another to discover ways to use it well.

A project of the Society for Information Management's Enterprise Architecture Working Group and edited by Leon A. Kappelman, The SIM Guide to Enterprise Architecture provides insights from leading authorities on EA, including John Zachman, Larry DeBoever, George Paras, Jeanne Ross, and Randy Hite. The book supplies a solid understanding of key concepts for effectively leveraging EA to redesign business processes, integrate services, and become an Information Age enterprise. Beginning with a look at current theory and frameworks, the book discusses the practical application of enterprise architecture and includes a wealth of best practices, resources, and references. It contains the SIM survey of IT organizations' EA activities, which provides important metrics for evaluating progress and success.

Successful businesses exploit synergy among business functions and push the boundaries of process design. IT's cross-functional position uniquely qualifies it to lead process innovation. EA lets CIOs integrate technology with business vision and is the roadmap for implementing new systems, changing behavior, and driving value. This book explores the vision, foundation, and enabling technology required to successfully transform organizations with enterprise architecture.

Click Here to Buy "The SIM Guide to Enterprise Architecture"!

Being Agile in All Things Great and Small

host — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:00:00 GMT

Supply Chain: A Look to the East

host — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 11:28:00 GMT

Supply Chain: What to Expect in 2012

host — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:57:00 GMT

The Agile CEO

host — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:59:00 GMT

Agile Savings vs. Traditional Methods

host — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:16:00 GMT

Announcing the 2012 ITMPI Challenge

host — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:44:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
- Robert Heinlein

We would like to add to Heinlein's list "write a case study".
We know you have one in you! Two case studies to choose from, two ways to enter, two ways to win an iPad2....

Enter the Risk Management Challenge:

Send us an article or whitepaper outlining your own experiences with implementing a risk management program in your IT organization and receive an ipad2 if we select your article as our best submission. Eligible submissions must include an actual case study that examines the original problem you sought to address and should NOT explicitly reference any commerical products or company names. Case studies should attempt to answer some or all of the following questions:

- What was the objective of the project? - What was its cost/schedule? - How many people were involved? - Was risk management a central or support actor in decision making? - What processes, techniques, methods, or tools did you follow? - How much did it cost to implement? - What risk management training was given to the team? To the customer? - What positive difference(s) has risk management made to the project/organization? - What value-add did risk management create for the project and/or organization? - What negative difference(s) has it made to the project/organization, e.g., organization resistance that had to be overcome? - What weaknesses existed in the risk process or approach to implementing it? - What needs to be improved to make risk management more effective in the future?

Enter the Project Portfolio Management Challenge:

Send us an article or whitepaper outlining your own experiences with implementing project portfolio management in your organization and receive an ipad2 if we select your article as our best submission. Eligible submissions must include an actual case study that examines the original problem you sought to address and should NOT explicitly reference any commercial product or company names but should discuss the major component of your solution — such as decision criteria for project selection. Case studies should explore both the pros and cons of the process that you developed and should attempt to answer some or all of the following questions:
- What processes, techniques, or methods did you employ? - How did the system handle changes in the business environment and project priorities? - What difference has portfolio management made to the organization? - What needs to be improved to make PPM more effective in the future?

Please email your submissions to Susan_soule@compaid.com and include your name and contact information with your submission.
The deadline for all submissions will be February 29, 2012. The winners will be announced sometime before April 1st, 2012.
All taxes are the responsibility of the winner.
The type of iPad will be determined by CAI.
A connection to a wireless carrier is the responsibility of the winner.
Individuals may enter both contests.
Runner-up submissions may be published in the ITMPI newsletter and on www.itmpi.org

IT Portfolio Management: Challenges and Best Practices

host — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:03:00 GMT

Four Common Mistakes in IT Portfolio Management

host — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:44:00 GMT

The Management System: Why it Matters

host — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:48:00 GMT

Software Product Selection Tips

host — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 12:48:00 GMT

The PMO Case Study Issue

host — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:38:00 GMT

IT Portfolio Management 101

host — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:23:00 GMT

A CIO's Guide to IT Portfolio Management

host — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:23:00 GMT

Top 5 Reasons PMOs Fail

host — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:43:00 GMT

Project Management Kung Fu

host — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:49:00 GMT

New from Capers Jones: "The Economics of Software Quality"

host — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 14:55:00 GMT

The PMO: Challenges and Secrets

host — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 15:04:00 GMT

How a PMO Solves Business Problems

host — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:12:00 GMT

Why You Need a PMO

host — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:16:00 GMT

Modeling and Managing Software Process Efficiency and Effectiveness

host — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:13:00 GMT

Agile and Offshore: 12 Lessons Learned

host — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:54:00 GMT

Agile Software Development and P90X

host — Tue, 24 May 2011 09:53:00 GMT

Reducing Project Failure: Over-commitment and Corrective Actions

host — Tue, 10 May 2011 09:59:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"In all chaos there is a cosmos; in all disorder, a secret order."
- Carl Jung

Reducing Project Failure: Over-commitment and Corrective Actions

All projects experience some level of over-commitment at different times. When the level of over-commitment is minor or sporadic, adding a few more hours, days or resources can help. However, when over-commitment is severe or chronic and commitments cannot be met, very expensive delays and quality problems can result. This article describes an example of how a project can check its level of over-commitment and provides some of the corrective actions that can be taken. Tailor this example to fit your needs or use it as a starting point to generate your own commitment checks. (4 pages)

Click here to read "Reducing Project Failure: Over-commitment and Corrective Actions"!

We Must Over-Commit - We Must Win Business

Commitments continue to challenge software projects. Approximately 60% of software and IT professionals that we meet complain about being over-committed, under- resourced and unable to negotiate deadlines, scope and resources. The remaining 40% have little difficulty establishing achievable commitments with their management team and customer. During our observations since 1989 we see two distinct camps. Camp One believes "It's not realistic to make realistic commitments." Camp Two believes "It's not realistic to make unrealistic commitments." This article describes each camp and how one can change camps if desired. (4 pages)

Click here to read "We Must Over-Commit - We Must Win Business"!

Where do you Spend Your Time - Fulfillment or Demand?

Over the years, numerous time management models have been developed to help categorize and improve time allocation. Usually these models group activities by separating urgent and important initiatives from less pressing obligations. Whichever representation you prefer, it is important that it be used to identify where time is spent now and to determine which actions you can take to shift your focus. In the end, one needs to be patient and make improvements incrementally and consistently. (4 pages)

Click here to read "Where do you Spend Your Time - Fulfillment or Demand?"!

Site of the Week

informIT

Book of the Week

Reflections on Management: How to Manage Your Software Projects, Your Teams, Your Boss, and Yourself
by Watts Humphrey, William R. Thomas.

Click Here to Buy "Reflections on Management: How to Manage Your Software Projects, Your Teams, Your Boss, and Yourself"!

Selling Quality, Slimming Documentation and Using Checklists

host — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 10:19:00 GMT

CMMI for Services: Introduction and Examples

host — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:22:00 GMT

Project Planning: Step-by-Step

host — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 10:27:00 GMT

Know Your Enemy: Software Risk Management

host — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 10:33:00 GMT

10 Ways to Guarantee Project Failure

host — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 11:11:00 GMT

6 Project Management Basics You Must Never Forget

host — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:37:00 GMT

The 10 Most Powerful Principles for Quality in Software

host — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:03:00 GMT

16 Best Practices for Software Development Projects

host — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 11:54:00 GMT

Ignoring the Warning Signs?

host — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 13:11:00 GMT

10 Good Reasons to Do Agile Development

host — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 13:39:00 GMT

Succeeding in Your Agile Adoption

host — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 13:16:00 GMT

Three by Watts Humphrey

host — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 13:46:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world."
- Archimedes

Watts Humphrey: The Software Quality Profile

The software community has been slow to use data to measure software quality. This paper by Watts Humphrey discusses the reasons for this problem and describes a way to use process measurements to assess product quality. The basic process measures are time, size, and defects. When these data are gathered for every engineer and for every step of the development process, a host of quality measures can be derived to evaluate software quality. Extensive data from the Personal Software ProcessSM (PSPSM) are used to derive the profiles of software processes that generally produce high quality software products. By examining these profiles, one can judge the likelihood that a program will have defects found in its subsequent testing or use. Examples are given of defect profiles, together with guidelines for their use. (15 pages)

Click here to read "Watts Humphrey: The Software Quality Profile"!

Watts Humphrey: Why Don't They Practice What We Preach?

One of the most intractable problems in software is getting engineers to consistently use effective methods. The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) has worked on this problem for a number of years and has developed effective methods for addressing it. This paper by Watts Humphrey describes these methods and shows what they have accomplished with several hundred students and working engineers. After first describing the problem of changing engineers' practices, the paper discusses the logic engineers typically follow in deciding what methods to use. Next is a description of the Personal Software ProcessSM (PSPSM) and the Team Software ProcessSM(TSPSM). Finally, the implications of SEI's experiences with the PSP and TSP are described, with particular emphasis on software engineering and computer science education. (14 pages)

Click here to read "Watts Humphrey: Why Don't They Practice What We Preach?"!

The Personal Software Process: Overview, Practice and Results

One might ask why the software community has been so slow to adopt proven quality principles. The answer appears to be that these methods are difficult to introduce and are not intuitively obvious. Without convincing evidence, for example, few engineers believe it is more efficient to find defects by reviewing code than by testing and debugging. The PSP thus uses a phased introduction strategy to demonstrate the methods to the engineers with their own data. By following a seven step process, completing 10 small programming exercises, and producing five analysis exercises, engineers see how the PSP methods work for them. Find out more in this article by Watts Humphrey. (6 pages)

Click here to read "The Personal Software Process: Overview, Practice and Results"!

Book of the Week

Winning with Software: An Executive Strategy
by Watts Humphrey

Click Here to Buy "Winning with Software: An Executive Strategy"!

Advanced Topics in Software Requirements Engineering

host — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:55:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is that they can't see the problem."
- G. K. Chesterton

Understanding the Product Life Cycle: Four Key Requirements Engineering Techniques

Many enterprises view time to market and schedule performance as the key differentiators between market leaders and followers. By maintaining schedule commitments and shortening cycle times, companies become more reliable suppliers and can optimize profitability. Pressed to accelerate project handover and new-product commercialization, companies have improved R&D execution over the years with instruments such as CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration). A field study involving many industry projects revealed that only those that took a requirements engineering perspective in four key product lifecycle management activities were successful (7 pages).

Click here to read "Understanding the Product Life Cycle: Four Key Requirements Engineering Techniques"!

Improving the Exchange of Requirements and Specifications Between Business Partners

Increasingly complex supplier-relationships dominate product development, independent of industries and products. Mostly the primary source of risks and later problems is insufficient coherence with requirements engineering methodology and collaboration between different business partners during the project. This article based on experiences from various industries and projects provides insight into how to effectively collaborate in requirements engineering. Methods and tools are one side of the medal, but true collaboration also means having a platform to effectively and efficiently exchange requirements, specifications and their entire change management across impacted stakeholders. The Requirements Interchange Format (RIF) has quickly moved forward over the past two years first in automotive and currently starting in domains such as medical and aerospace. This paper describes typical RE collaboration scenarios and what we recommend in order to mitigate risks and thus effectively manage complex supplier relationships. We will not "sell" any tool but rather indicate how RIF is applied in order to share, communicate and collaborate across different tools. (14 pages)

Click here to read "Improving the Exchange of Requirements and Specifications Between Business Partners"!

Requirements Engineering for Medical Systems

Requirements engineering is today the most important success factor in developing critical systems, such as medical, automotive, railway, industrial automation and aerospace. Together with Siemens, Vector has summarized experiences from current projects. The presentation begins with an analysis of typical challenges and then highlights solutions and best practices with concrete guidance how to improve requirements engineering for critical systems. (26 pages)

Click here to read "Requirements Engineering for Medical Systems"!

Book of the Week

Requirements Engineering Advanced Topics
by Dr. Christof Ebert

Click Here to Buy "Winning with Software: An Executive Strategy"!

A Holistic Approach to IT

host — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:11:00 GMT

Key Lessons Learned in Offshore Outsourcing

host — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 14:17:00 GMT

10 Principles for Project Control

host — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:22:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"The world is a story we tell ourselves about the world."
- Vikram Chandra

10 Principles for Project Control

It is now well-known and well-documented that far too many projects fail totally or partially, both in engineering generally and software engineering. In this paper, Tom Gilb offers some of his opinions, and hopes to lend some of his originality to the discussion. (19 pages)

Click here to read "10 Principles for Project Control"!

Managing Priorities: A Key to Systematic Decision-Making

A central concern of systems engineering is selecting the most preferred alternatives for implementation from among competing options. The selection process is sometimes called tradeoff analysis, and is often built on the methods of decision analysis and utility theory. The process can be loosely divided into two parts, a first part in which one determines the relative priority of various requirements, and a second part, a design selection phase, in which alternatives are compared, and the preferred alternatives chosen. This paper by Tom Gilb discusses the means of determining the priority order for implementing system changes. It also outlines the implications on the selection process of evolutionary systems development. (19 pages)

Click here to read "Managing Priorities: A Key to Systematic Decision-Making"!

The 10 Most Powerful Principles for Quality in Software

The software industry knows it has a problem: The industry's maturity level with respect to "numbers" is known to be poor. While solutions abound, knowing which solutions work is the big question. What are the most fundamental underlying principles in successful projects? What can be done right now? The first step is to recognize that all your quality requirements can and should be specified numerically. This does not mean "counting bugs." It means quantifying qualities such as security, portability, adaptability, maintainability, robustness, usability, reliability, and performance. This article by Tom Gilb presents 10 powerful principles to improve quality that are not widely taught or appreciated. They are based on ideas of measurement, quantification, and feedback. (9 pages)

Click here to read "The 10 Most Powerful Principles for Quality in Software"!

Book of the Week

Competitive Engineering
by Tom Gilb

From Google: "Competitive Engineering documents Tom Gilb's unique, ground-breaking approach to communicating management objectives and systems engineering requirements, clearly and unambiguously. Competitive Engineering is a revelation for anyone involved in management and risk control. Already used by thousands of project managers and systems engineers around the world, this is a handbook for initiating, controlling and delivering complex projects on time and within budget. The Competitive Engineering methodology provides a practical set of tools and techniques that enable readers to effectively design, manage and deliver results in any complex organization - in engineering, industry, systems engineering, software, IT, the service sector and beyond."

Click Here to Buy "Competitive Engineering"!

Three Software Measurement Experts

host — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:31:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"The one thing that matters is the effort. It continues, whereas the end to be attained is but an illusion of the climber, as he fares on and on from crest to crest; and once the goal is reached it has no meaning."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

An Interview with David Garmus

David Garmus is a Founder of The David Consulting Group (DCG), an SEI CMMI Approved Transition Partner and a PSM Transition Organization that supports software development organizations in achieving software excellence with a metric-centered approach. David is an acknowledged authority in the sizing, measurement and estimation of software application development and maintenance. He is a Past President of the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG). David is the author, along with David Herron, of Measuring The Software Process: A Practical Guide To Functional Measurements as well as Function Point Analysis: Measurement Practices for Successful Software Projects.

Click here to read "An Interview with David Garmus"!

An Interview with Pam Morris

Pam Morris has over 20 years experience in software development and since 1989 has specialised in the area of software measurement and process improvement. Pam is currently the Managing Director of Total Metrics, which she founded in 1994 in response to the great need in the software industry for better management and control of development processes. Pam is past president of the Australian Software Metrics Association (ASMA) where she currently holds a position on both the Executive and Benchmarking Database Special Interest groups. She also represents Standards Australia as the international project editor of the ISO standard 14143-1 and 2 for Functional Size Measurement. Pam plays an active role internationally in the development of measurement standards and was a member of the International Function Point User Group (IFPUG) Counting Practices Committee in the USA from 1993 to 2000. In 2006 Pam was awarded the Australian ITP Lifetime Achievement Award for her services to the IT Industry.

Click here to read "An Interview with Pam Morris"!

An Interview with Pekka Forselius

Pekka Forselius is a researcher and developer of project management methods and concepts, including FiSMA Scope Management, FiSMA 1.1 FSM method and KISS Functional Size Measurement approach. His research speciality is organisational learning, in particular corporate memory and benchmarking. He is currently business partner, CEO and project management consultant at Software Technology Transfer Finland (STTF) Oy. He is also Vice President of the international benchmarking organisation ISBSG and a member of the executive committee of the COSMIC consortium. Pekka is the developer of the Experience Pro data-collection concept and is the product manager of Experience Pro software, a tool for software project scope management. He received an MSc in informatics and an executive MBA from the University of Jyvskyl.

Click here to read "An Interview with Pekka Forselius"!

International Function Point User's Group

IFPUG

Function Points in Practice

host — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:31:00 GMT

What Are Function Points?

host — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:45:00 GMT

Advanced Software Testing

host — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:55:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"To be champion requires more than simply being a strong player; one has to be a strong human being as well." - Anatoly Karpov
- Anatoly Karpov

Advanced Software Testing: Decision Tables

Equivalence partitioning and boundary value analysis are very useful techniques. They are especially useful when testing input field validation at the user interface. However, lots of testing that we do as test analysts involves testing the business logic that sits underneath the user interface. We can use boundary values and equivalence partitioning on business logic, too, but three additional techniques, decision tables, use cases, and state-based testing, will often prove handier and more powerful techniques. In this article, we start with decision tables. Conceptually, decision tables express the rules that govern handling of transactional situations. By their simple, concise structure, decision tables make it easy for us to design tests for those rules, usually at least one test per rule. (11 pages)

Click here to read "Advanced Software Testing: Decision Tables"!

Advanced Software Testing: State-Based Testing

At the start of this series, I said we would cover three techniques that would prove useful for testing business logic, often more useful than equivalence partitioning and boundary value analysis. We covered decision tables, which are best in transactional testing situations. In the next article, we'll cover use cases, where preconditions and postconditions help to insulate one workflow from the previous workflow and the next workflow. In this article, we look at state-based testing. State-based testing is ideal when we have sequences of events that occur and conditions that apply to those events, and the proper handling of a particular event/condition situation depends on the events and conditions that have occurred in the past. In some cases, the sequences of events can be potentially infinite, which of course exceeds our testing capabilities, but we want to have a test design technique that allows us to handle arbitrarily-long sequences of events. (16 pages)

Click here to read "Advanced Software Testing: State-Based Testing"!

Advanced Software Testing: Use Cases

At the start of this series, I said we would cover three techniques that would prove useful for testing business logic, often more useful than equivalence partitioning and boundary value analysis. First, we covered decision tables, which are best in transactional testing situations. Next, we looked at state-based testing, which is ideal when we have sequences of events that occur and conditions that apply to those events, and the proper handling of a particular event/condition situation depends on the events and conditions that have occurred in the past. In this article, we'll cover use cases, where preconditions and postconditions help to insulate one workflow from the previous workflow and the next workflow. With these three techniques in hand, you have a set of powerful techniques for testing the business logic of a system. Conceptually, use case testing is a way to ensure that we have tested typical and exceptional workflows and scenarios for the system, from the point of view of the various actors who directly interact with the system and from the point of view of the various stakeholders who indirectly interact with the system. If we (as test analysts) receive use cases from business analysts or system designers, then these can serve as convenient frameworks for creating test cases. (10 pages)

Click here to read "Advanced Software Testing: Use Cases"!

Rex Black Consulting Services

Collaboration and Requirements

host — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:55:00 GMT

Benchmarks and Goals for the Adult Corporate Learner

host — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:11:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"The principle goal of education is to create people who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done - people who are creative, inventive and discoverers."
- Jean Piaget

Andragogy Assumptions

In adult education, an important theory with which to be familiar is Malcolm Knowles' Andragogy. Andragogy is the art and science of teaching adults (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 1998). There are six assumptions in Andragogy. First, adults need to know why they need to learn something. Second, adults are responsible for their own decisions. Third, adults have a great deal of experience to bring to education. Fourth, adults are ready to learn what they need to know. Fifth, adults consider learning to be life centered. Finally, adults are mostly motivated by internal pressures (4 pages)

Click here to read "Andragogy Assumptions"!

Benchmarks and Goal Setting for the Adult Learner

In the field of adult education, goal setting is a very important part of ensuring that learners get what they need out of the process. Many learners are able to set their own goals; however, it is equally beneficial for the instructor to aid the students in goal setting and in achieving those goals. This post addresses some of the benefits of goal setting for adult learners as well as some ways in which instructors can help learners set and achieve their goals. (3 pages)

Click here to read "Benchmarks and Goal Setting for the Adult Learner"!

Microsoft Project 2007 for the Adult Learner

In an effort to reduce costs while still providing value to its clients, Computer Aid, Inc. (CAI) is developing a training program that will provide new skills to adults who are re-entering the workforce. These adult learners have few computer skills; however, they are being hired to assist with data entry and tracking on CAI's projects. The tool that they must use is Microsoft Project 2007. While some of the participants have limited computer skills, the participants are all new to this particular application. As such, this will be a transformative journey for the participants. In order to address the needs of these adult learners, three learning theories will be combined. First, the entire program will rely heavily on the transformative learning theory that has been developed by Laurent Daloz (1999). In addition, the program will also focus on teaching the participants how to learn through the use of the cognitive learning theory—specifically Robert Gagné's (1985) nine events of instruction. Finally, because this is a skills-based program, it will also rely on some aspects of the behaviorist learning theory as developed by B. F. Skinner (Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007). This post will present the how the learning theories will be used, how the developmental theory will be used, and what the actual curriculum will be.(5 pages)

Click here to read "Microsoft Project 2007 for the Adult Learner"!

Site of the Week

Scott Fabel's Corporate Training Blog

Implementing CMMI and Scrum Together

host — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:19:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"We are all geniuses up to the age of ten."
- Aldous Huxley

Implementing CMMI and Scrum Together

In this article by Neil Potter and Mary Sakry, the authors use the examples of CMMI and Scrum, and show that the Scrum methodology implements many of the CMMI practices. Understanding the content and similarities of each framework is essential before either or both can be deployed. Integrating similar changes, and deploying them as one, streamlines the change cycle.

Click here to read "Implementing CMMI and Scrum Together"!

Scrum and CMMI Level 5: The Magic Potion for Code Warriors

Projects combining agile methods with CMMI are more successful in producing higher quality software that more effectively meets customer needs at a faster pace. Systematic Software Engineering works at CMMI level 5 and uses Lean Software Development as a driver for optimizing software processes. Early pilot projects at Systematic showed productivity on Scrum teams almost twice that of traditional teams. Other projects demonstrated a story based test-driven approach to software development reduced defects found during final test by 40%. The authors in this article assert that Scrum and CMMI together bring a more powerful combination of adaptability and predictability than either one alone and suggest how other companies can combine them.

Click here to read "Scrum and CMMI Level 5: The Magic Potion for Code Warriors"!

Getting New Practices Used and Keeping Them Visible

Does this sound familiar? A new process for fill-in-the-blank is created. It is used by five percent of your organization, and then a few months later, 10 percent. After one year, no one has seen or heard of it. The process is no longer used. New practices in an organization typically suffer from being out-of-sight and out-of-mind. When they are first created, they are used by a handful of projects. After some management push and word-of-mouth advertising, the processes are used more widely. However, without a strategy in place for maintaining the gains, the organization can revert back to its previous ways and ignore these new methods. This article by Neil Potter and Mary Sakry explains one approach for making new practices visible so that they are performed long-term.

Click here to read "Getting New Practices Used and Keeping Them Visible"!

Site of the Week

Scrum Alliance

Book of the Week

Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum
by Mike Cohn

Click Here to Buy "Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum"!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

host — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:24:00 GMT

Getting Performance From Process Improvement

host — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:38:00 GMT

A Project Management Primer

host — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:42:00 GMT

Retrospectives with Large and Distributed Teams

host — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:42:00 GMT

Becoming a Self-Directed Leader

host — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:02:00 GMT

Managing by Numbers

host — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:11:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted."
- Betrand Russell

Visual Analytics in Software Maintenance: Challenges and Opportunities.

Visual analytics (VA) is an emerging science at the crossroads of data and information visualization, graphics, data mining, and knowledge representation, with many successful applications in engineering, business and finance, security, geosciences, and e-governance and health. Tools using visualization, data mining, and data analysis are also prominently present in a different field: software maintenance. However, an integrated VA is relatively new for this field. In this article, we discuss the specific challenges and particularities of applying VA in software engineering, highlight the added value of a VA approach, as distilled by us from several large-scale software engineering industrial projects. (11 pages)

Click here to read "Visual Analytics in Software Maintenance: Challenges and Opportunities"!

Improving Testing Efficiency: Agile Test Case Prioritization

A remaining challenging area in the field of software management is the release decision, deciding whether or not a software product can be transferred from its development phase to operational use. Many software manufacturers have difficulty in determining the 'right' moment to release their software products. It is a trade-off between an early release, to capture the benefits of an earlier market introduction, and the deferral of product release, to enhance functionality, or improve quality. Execution testing is currently the most common way of verifying whether a software system is sufficiently defect-free or not. With this approach, testing resources are absorbed not just in testing, but in identifying the causes of defects and aiding re-work of the software. The extent to which rectified software needs to be re-tested is not always known. The stop criterion used is either available testing time or a sufficiently stable product. Whatever criterion is taken, the test process should be as efficient as possible to remove as many defects as possible. In this paper, we describe a method called "Agile Test Case Prioritization" for optimizing testing efficiency. (7 pages)

Click here to read "Improving Testing Efficiency: Agile Test Case Prioritization"!

Software Improvement Through Benchmarking: Case Study Results

Since the early nineties in the previous century, many organizations have substantially invested into software process improvement. Starting in the military industry, the concept of process improvement has nowadays been widely adopted in many other industry segments. It is one the few initiatives that have sustained over time, this in contrast to many hypes. Available models and standards help to define improved processes not only on paper, but also to institutionalize them in the daily way of working. However, a justified and often raised question is what the payoff is. Does the quality of products increase? Has efficiency improved? Are products being brought to the market faster? And an overall question: compared to what? Benchmarking is a technique that makes use of external comparisons to better evaluate real capability and identify possible actions for the future. As such, it is an important instrument to drive improvement efforts. Using a best practice set of Key Performance Indicators to benchmark capability in several industrial case studies, no strong correlation could be found between real capability and maturity levels. Satisfying models or standards is no guarantee for real performance improvements. It is recommended to focus on a multi-dimensional assessment of the capability of an organization and derive improvements from benchmarked results. (8 pages)

Click here to read "Software Improvement Through Benchmarking: Case Study Results"!

Site of the Week

The Software Benchmarking Organization

Change Does Not Happen

host — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:08:00 GMT

The Hurly-Burly Hubbub of Change

host — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:02:00 GMT

Risk Management: What it is; What it was; What it Shall Be

host — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:14:00 GMT

Seven (+/- Two) Software Measurement Conundrums

host — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:25:00 GMT

Measuring Up to Metrics

host — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:24:00 GMT

New Year's Resolutions (for Software Process Improvement)

host — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:34:00 GMT

What We Can Learn From Lines of Code Data

host — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:36:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize until you have tried to make it precise."
- Bertrand Russell

Counting Lines of Code: Virtually Worthless for Estimating and Software Sizing

In 2005 CrossTalk published an article that examined the use of lines of code (LOC) as the basis for the size of a software application.That paper was based on the data collected from Personal Software Process (PSPSM) students who developed the same programs as part of the PSP course. The variation in the resulting products (software programs) was reduced in part by the classes being taught by the same SEI-authorized PSP instructor, using the same program descriptions, and using the same acceptance criteria reviewed by the same instructor. Thematically, that paper warned of the unpredictable nature of lines of code when used for software measurement or estimating. Questions regarding human performance were only briefly introduced in that article. This article by Joe Schofield provides the background, data, and preliminary conclusions for the programs developed in those classes with insights around human performance. While potentially unpopular, the use of quantitative data on human performance in the IT world is not unlike personal performance measures common in other industries.

Click here to read "Counting Lines of Code: Virtually Worthless for Estimating and Software Sizing"!

Is There a Weakest Link After All?

Building on the data from Counting Lines of Code: Virtually Worthless for Estimating and Software Sizing this article by Joe Schofield revisits the assertion in The Statistically Unreliable Nature of Lines of Code as to whether the programmer with the largest number of longest programs in a set of nine, in his / her peer class would be a candidate for retraining or some other more suitable line of work. The analysis reinforces previous conclusions that individual software programmer performance is tied directly to the programming task at hand; previous work is not a reliable predictor of size, effort, or cost. Nonetheless, some programmer practices might be worth emulating, others worthy of monitoring.

Click here to read "Is There a Weakest Link After All?"!

Is There Value to using Lines of Code for Measuring People After All?

The final article in this three-part series by Joe Schofield uses a uniquely consolidated version of the class data to explore two approaches for using lines of code data to identify "under performers." In addition, several reasons are offered that substantiate how "under performers" deplete the organization of its value and capacity. Strategies for reviving "under performers" is left to the discretion and imagination of the offended party.

Click here to read "Is There Value to using Lines of Code for Measuring People After All?"!

Site of the Week

Sandia National Laboratories

What Every CEO Needs to Know About Software Projects

host — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:43:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"The ideal engineer is a composite. He is not a scientist, he is not a mathematician, he is not a sociologist or a writer; but he may use the knowledge and techniques of any or all of these disciplines in solving engineering problems."
- N.W. Dougherty

What Every CEO and GM Needs to Know About Software Projects: What Goes Wrong, Why, What YOU Can Do

The intended audience for this article by Gary Gack includes C, V, and D level leaders, both inside and outside the IT organization - if you have a stake in the outcome of software and IT projects this paper is intended for you - it's about MANAGEMENT, not technology. Whether your organization builds software or you buy it, the realities we examine here WILL impact your business - these issues are endemic in the industry! (15 pages)

Click here to read "What Every CEO and GM Needs to Know About Software Projects: What Goes Wrong, Why, What YOU Can Do"!

Cost of Quality: a Key Effectiveness Metric for Software and IT

Many different metrics have been proposed and sometimes used, but most organizations have great difficulty agreeing on a core set that provide an overall perspective. This White Paper by Gary Gack proposes "Cost of Quality" metrics that get to the heart of organizational efficiency and effectiveness in software and IT organizations. These metrics facilitate (but are not a pre-requisite for) effective application of Lean Six Sigma in software and IT organizations. Part 1 of this paper defines Cost of Quality metrics as they apply to software and IT organizations. Part 2 discusses application of these metrics to process improvement. (9 pages)

Click here to read "Cost of Quality: a Key Effectiveness Metric for Software and IT"!

The Project Office: When, Why, How

The concept of a "Project Office" has been applied successfully in the Construction and Defense industries for many years as a tool to manage risk on major projects. In these days of outsourcing and business process transformation, the Project Office can help you manage the business risk inherent in any significant change initiative. While the examples discussed here deal with exceptionally large-scale situations, the key ideas apply to any important initiative where you face "bet your job" risks. Whenever you're doing something that "can't be allowed to fail" the Project Office provides valuable insurance. (7 pages)

Click here to read "The Project Office: When, Why, How"!

Site of the Week

Process Fusion

Successful Software Product Management

host — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:50:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"My work is a game; a very serious game."
- M.C. Escher

Software Product Management

It's easy to confuse the disciplines of project manager and product manager. Simply put, the development of the product or service falls to the project manager, while the market success of software and system products depends on the skills and competence of the product manager. This article provides an overview of software product management and the role of a product manager, and describes concrete practices that can boost an organization's software product management and thus the success rate of products in terms of predictability, quality, and efficiency.

Click here to read "Software Product Management"!

The Impacts of Software Product Management

The success of any product depends on the skills and competence of the product manager. This article evaluates the relevance of good product management on the success of a product. The empirical study is supported by data from 178 industry projects from telecommunication industry over a period of three years throughout which the product management role and competency was defined, deployed and improved. The behaviors and project performance before and after strengthening the product management discipline are compared. We found that with increasing institutionalization of a consistent and empowered product management role, the success rate of projects in terms of schedule predictability, quality and project duration improves. To allow better transfer of achieved results to other settings, the article provides concrete guidelines about key success factors for good product management.

Click here to read "The Impacts of Software Product Management"!

Understanding the Product Life Cycle: Four Key Requirements

Click here to read "Understanding the Product Life Cycle: Four Key Requirements!

Site of the Week

Software Product Management Network

Making Organizational Change Happen

host — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:00:00 GMT

100 IT Performance Metrics

host — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:16:00 GMT

Show Me the Money!

host — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:56:00 GMT

The Decision Model: A Framework for Linking Business and Technology

host — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:30:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop."
- Confucius

The Decision Model: Linking Business Leaders and Technology

This article by Barbara Halle and Larry Goldberg introduces the Decision Model as an emerging new business asset of high business value, and how the business may best capitalize on that value. The audience for this article includes business leaders, business architects, requirements analysts, use case modelers, business process modelers, and agile developers. (9 pages)

Click here to read "The Decision Model: Linking Business Leaders and Technology"!

Improving Process Models and The Requirements Process

This article by Barbara Halle and Larry Goldberg explains how the Decision Model revolutionizes today's business processes and requirements management. The audience for this article includes business architects, requirements analysts, use case modelers, business process modelers, and agile developers. This article establishes the Decision Model, not only as a new business asset, but also as a new requirements artifact and an imperative element in decision-aware business processes. (15 pages)

Revolutionizing the Testing Process

The Decision Model can shorten the testing and development cycle drastically. That's because the Decision Model separates the business logic from other concerns and therefore test cases can be driven directly from the content of a Decision Model. Test cases can be developed for individual Rule Families within a Decision Model or for part or all of a Decision Model. The Decision Model also assists in scenario testing for a business process. The target audience for this article is business people, business architects, developers (agile and conventional), and testers. (9 pages)

Click here to read "Revolutionizing the Testing Process"

Site of the Week

Knowledge Partners International

Book of the Week

The Decision Model: A Business Logic Framework Linking Business and Technology
By Barbara von Halle and Larry Goldberg

The Decision Model adds simplicity and rigor to the way we view, leverage, and automate business rules in much the same way the Relational Model did for data. In "The Decision Model: A Business Logic Framework Linking Business and Technology" authors Barbara von Halle and Larry Goldberg have created a reference guide that will change the game between business managers and IT professionals while delivering the foundation for a new generation of software. Their book provides a model of business logic with a well-defined structure and three forms of normalization, structural and integrity principles.

Click Here to Buy "The Decision Model: A Business Logic Framework Linking Business and Technology"!

Software Testing Automation

host — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:42:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"We are all of us more or less echoes, repeating involuntarily the virtues, the defects, the movements, and the characters of those among whom we live."
- Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

Developing a Compelling Test Automation Business Case

Traditional business cases focus on cost containment and reduction as the primary means of achieving an attractive ROI. While these are important, even crucial aspects, test automation should be viewed through perhaps a wider lens. In this article, Bob Galen explores a slightly wider view to the test automation business case—one where time to market, cycle time, and even creativity are examined as components. (9 pages)

Click here to read "Developing a Compelling Test Automation Business Case"!

Establishing your Test Automation SDLC

Testing teams continue to invest in test automation tools & training in an ongoing effort to reduce the overall effort and cost associated with testing. It's exacerbated by our focus on iterating software development in ever shorter cycles—thus increasing the pressure on the testing team. However, few test teams approach their automation efforts as true software development projects, which causes no end of frustration and failure. Join Bob Galen as he establishes a Test Automation SDLC to connect to your Product Development SDLC. (10 pages)

Test Automation Selection Criteria—Picking the "Right" Candidates

So you've exhaustively evaluated products and selected your test automation tool. You've also received budget sign-off for the tool and some training, so you're ready to go. However, depending on your environment, you have another even more crucial decision-point facing you. If you have a large repository of existing manual test cases, then deciding where and how to begin automation—may be the most daunting decision you've faced. Here Bob Galen will explore decision criteria and strategies for determining where to begin your automation journey. (9 pages)

Click here to read "Test Automation Selection Criteria—Picking the "Right" Candidates"

Site of the Week

RGalen Consulting Group

Book of the Week

Software Endgames—Eliminating Defects, Controlling Change, And The Countdown To On-time Delivery
By Robert Galen

In software development, projects are won or lost during the endgame -- that final stage between release for testing and release to customers. Software Endgames presents realistic strategies for delivering working software to your customers. Focusing solely on the endgame, the book provides hard-won, hands-on practices you can implement right away. In the endgame, effective management of defect repairs is crucial. Experienced project manager and consultant Robert Galen shows how to conduct effective defect triage -- analyzing, categorizing, and determining the priority of defects for repair. Readers learn how to transform the endgame from a time of rampant defects and utter chaos into a time of focused repairs, effective teamwork, and change management. You'll set release criteria, establish endgame release plans, and utilize a variety of change reduction and endgame management techniques.

Click Here to Buy "Software Endgames—Eliminating Defects, Controlling Change, And The Countdown To On-time Delivery"!

International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG)

host — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:47:00 GMT

Quote of the Week

"If you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there."
- George Harrison

Software Non-Functional Assessment Framework

The IFPUG IT Performance Committee's objective is to define a framework for sizing non-functional requirements that can be used to establish a link between non-functional size and effort. Functional requirements in software development and maintenance are covered by the functional size measure known as IFPUG function points and are defined in the IFPUG Counting Practices Manual. David Garmus will discuss the on-going effort by IFPUG to size non-functional requirements, including both technical and quality aspects of software development, in a more consistent and repeatable process. (4 pages)

Click here to read "Software Non-Functional Assessment Framework"!

The IFPUG Counting Practices On-Going Effort in Sizing Functional Requirements

IFPUG's method for function point analysis is an ISO standard and must be conformant to ISO/IEC 14143-1:2007. Functional Size is a size of the software derived by quantifying the Functional User Requirements which are a subset of the User Requirements. These are requirements that describe what the software shall do, in terms of tasks and services. IFPUG's Counting Practices Committee (CPC) continually works to adapt the CPM to conform to the ISO standards. Janet Russac will discuss CPM 4.3, to be released in the last quarter of 2009, and the changes made to further evolve the methodology of sizing functional requirements. (7 pages)

Achieving Certification as a Function Point Specialist

The Certified Function Point Specialist (CFPS) designation is a formal recognition of a level of expertise in the area of Function Point Analysis (FPA), specifically expertise in both knowledge and application of the IFPUG counting rules according to the IFPUG Counting Practices Manual (CPM). Certification is achieved by passing a rigorous test of both the knowledge of the counting rules laid out in the current release of the CPM and the ability to apply those rules. Janet Russac will discuss both the content of the exam as well as test-taking techniques. (4 pages)

Click here to read "Achieving Certification as a Function Point Specialist"

Site of the Week

David Consulting Group Software Measurement Expertise

Book of the Week

Certified Function Point Specialist Examination Guide
By David Garmus and Janet Russac

The Certified Function Point Specialist Examination Guide prepares individuals by reviewing every key section of the Counting Practices Manual . Every chapter covering the manual concludes with a series of questions to reinforce key concepts and techniques. The guide also explains how to use the manual while taking the examination to ensure that correct information is quickly found. The guide ends with a sample examination to fully complete the study and preparation process.

Click Here to Buy "Certified Function Point Specialist Examination Guide"!

The Timeless Design of Information Systems

host — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:26:00 GMT