Feed: Software Estimation Blog - AggScore: 80.4

For a few years, CBS has been running a television show called Numb3rs. The premise is the standard take off on the brothers-solving-mysteries cliché that has been around since at least the Hardy Boys. Granted, Numbers has a couple of differences – the boys are older and employed. Don Eppes, the older of the pair, [...]

I’ve written before on the predictive nature of estimation software. Using software estimation products as project management software can help show you aspects of your project which you haven’t accounted for, particularly things like risk. However, software estimation products can do more than highlight areas which you haven’t seen, they can also peer around the corner [...]

This is a blog post by none-other than Dan Galorath, the Chief Architect for the SEER-SEM software. He talks about the difference between the types of project management software and sheds some light on not only the various differences that exist, but also where the two different types of software can be useful. One of the [...]

By Robert P Hunt (Galorath Incorporated), Paul J. Solomon (Performance-Based Earned Value), and Dan Galorath (Galorath Incorporated) Often, traditional earned value approaches do not deal sufficiently with the idiosyncrasies of software intensive programs.  However, successful management of software intensive programs can be achieved by focusing on establishing the requirements, developing a reliable baseline estimate [...]

Packaged Applications – The Hidden Costs of Snake-Oil By David DeWitt Most of us remember the dubious “doctor” in Huckleberry Finn who proclaims to have the cure for any malady.  From the back of the crowd his shill would loudly proclaim that he himself had been healed by the magical elixir.   Oh my, but the quantity of [...]

There are two types of Project Managers out there, those who get estimation software, and those who think it’s a magical box which turns hard working developers into robots. Here’s a list of the most cruel and unusual questions posed by the latter. 5. Two hours of sleep is plenty, right? 4. How much will productivity increase [...]

So, you’ve checked over all of your initial data, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. You’ve double checked with the client and you know exactly what they think that they want. And you’ve plugged all of that carefully measured data into your software estimation program of choice and hit the enter key. Congratulations and welcome [...]

Hey, welcome to 2009! It’s taken a while, but we’re finally at the point where we can go ahead and make our first estimate. But first, a recap of the first four steps in software estimation process. Understanding the problem – not just what you want to estimate, but why you want to estimate it. Know the rules [...]

Keeping up with the idea that we’re doing software estimating to create a software package, let’s go ahead and give a long look at our intended project. The first question you’re going to have to ask yourself is how big is this project going to be? If you’re writing new software, one of the key determining [...]

There’s a popular cliché amongst rocket scientists “a launch that is off by one degree will miss the moon by miles.” Okay, so maybe the authenticity of that phrase is leaves a lot to be desired, but the spirit of the statement – the accuracy of a rocket is only as sound as the accuracy [...]