Estimating the Functional Size of Oracle eBS applications

For custom developed software functional size estimation method can be done with reasonable accuracy. I have developed an approach, based on NESMA function points, that has proven to be very useful for portfolio sizing.

Estimating the functional size of applications that were built in the Oracle e-Business Suite (eBS) package appeared to be difficult. Available eBS modules contain of a huge amount of functionality that can be used to configure or construct desired functionality for the end-users. But how do you determine the amount of functionality that is available to the end-user?

Factors of influence for approximate COSMIC size measurement

Over the last few weeks I have received much more requests than usual from fellow metrics professionals if I can provide a copy of an article I have written. I have recently discovered that LinkedIn now has the possibility to add publications to my profile. So when I received a request for a copy of the article

Approximate size measurement with the COSMIC method - Factors of influence



that I wrote, together with Theo Prins, for the SMEF 2007 conference, I put that copy on my LinkedIn profile. And it has been downloaded more than a dozen times already. Apparently it is a topic of interest. Why?

Successful outsourcing begins with a contract

Contracts are the key to successful outsourcing. If you don’t define what is being measured for success, or what the expectations are, then you are only asking for trouble with misunderstandings. Where one person might determine an “incident” to be changing a password another might not. How important do you think good contracts are to successful outsourcing? Has the wording in contracts had an impact in projects you’ve been involved with?

Contracts can also be terrific places to create incentives to deliver great quality or beat schedules, by offering bonuses and other inducements. For example, in maintenance agreements it can be a great idea to pay bonuses for smaller number of over-all incidents rather than pay on a per-incident basis. If developers are getting paid for fewer hours worked, it is in their interests to build things right the first time and to take steps to reduce the number of support issues that could arise.

Scope Management : A case that sailed the seas of change

We all hear stories about failed IT projects and how hard it is to manage those projects properly. But we hardly hear why those projects failed. Many IT projects fail because they had to live up to unrealistic expectations. A lot of research has been done about the dynamics of software projects and a great deal about the dynamic behaviour of software projects is already known. All too often we do not use this knowledge and all too often succeeding software projects goes wrong. With the northernSCOPE approach we are able to manage the scope of a software project by making sensible use of experience from the past and what research has taught us about the dynamic behaviour of software projects.

In 2008 I have written a paper that I presented at the SMEF conference that describes the journey of a project across the seas of change, all the way from idea to implementation. In this paper I demonstrate that northernSCOPE is not a complicated academic endeavour, but a straightforward, down-to-earth approach that helps the project manager manage the scope of a software project the same way explorers like Columbus managed their journeys into the unknown.

For each of the twelve steps of the northernSCOPE approach the practical steps that have been taken to navigate the project out of possible danger zones are described. For each step the underlying theory is translated to practical use to the project manager and his customer. Each time the project ran into new requests that were out of scope or added new requirements or constraints to the project, the northernSCOPE approach was used to demonstrate the effect of giving in to these new requirements and of not giving in. It is not a story of a great success with a textbook project, but that of a project that could prove all along the way to deliver value for money for the customer.

Excellent knowledge exchange on IT estimating

Last week I had the honour of presenting the opening keynote on the Galorath Conference. Although organised by a vendor of Cost Estimating Software it was an excellent and open knowledge exchange on IT estimating. The conference had a well balanced line-up of speakers who presented different pieces of the puzzle to estimate the cost of different aspects of IT cost estimation. All presentations should be available on the Galorath website soon, but here is my personal impression:

Estimating & Pricing Application Management for Oracle EBS

Although Application Management consumes 70-80% of the Total Cost of Ownership, estimating and benchmarking the related effort still receives little attention. Apparently, estimating Application Management is not so simple. One of the main reasons for this, is the fact that the scope of Application Management is more diffuse than the scope of a project.

When we have defined what activities are in scope for an Application Management service offering, we are able to model this and use this model as a basis to estimate the related effort and cost. To be able to do this in a transparent way, based on experience data, we have combined the vision of our Service Component Model with the estimating power and references of SEER IT.

Next week I will present this on the 2011 SEER International Conference in Eindhoven. Although it is organised by Galorath it will have a general focus on the advancement of software estimation. Therefore this conference is proudly sponsored by Ordina.

The Price of IT

We are far beyond the days of the internet bubble where you could ask any price for anything that had to do with IT. Most of us realize that IT consists of products and services like in any other industry. Because of the less tangible nature of our products and services the IT industry still has a mystical aura to a lot of people. Claims that IT would become a commodity shocked the world a few years ago. From that perspective it is only logical that one of the most popular books on software estimation, written by Steve McConnell, has a subtitle: Demystifying the Black Art.

To share my experiences in making IT estimation and pricing a more mature topic I started this blog. I hope it helps in demystifying the subject of the price of IT.