Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2000 19:41:46 -0500 From: Withall Subject: SPIN Meeting Announcement 12/19/2000 Subject: Notice for December Meeting Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN) Meeting Announcement Topic: Software Benchmarks: What Works and What Doesn't? Speaker: Capers Jones When: Tuesday, December 19, 2000. 6:30pm-8:30pm 6:30-7:00 Networking and Round Tables 7:00-7:10 Announcements 7:10-8:10 Speaker 8:10-8:30 Questions and Answers Who: Everyone (Academia, Government, Industry) Location: General Dynamics, 77 "A" St., Needham MA. Info: See our web page, For SPIN info, contact Anna Allison, anna_allison@y... Note: Boston SPIN meetings are free. No RSVP is necessary. Abstract: Benchmark studies of software projects and software organizations are increasing in numbers and improving in sophistication. Function point metrics have added considerable depth to benchmark studies of involving the costs, effort, and schedules of software projects. However, executives are also interested in the value associated with software projects. Neither function points nor the older "lines of code" metrics have been fully successful in measuring the value of software applications. The presentation covers all of the major forms of software benchmarks that are of interest to large corporations and government agencies. Basic benchmark studies include productivity, quality, costs, staffing, and schedules. More sophisticated benchmarks also include software process assessments and collect data on organization structures, tools, specialization, and even ergonomic issues. Although benchmarks are useful today, there is an "event horizon" beyond which benchmarking is currently beyond the state of the art. At the end of calendar year 2000, it is not yet possible to perform meaningful benchmarks of topics such as the volumes of data stored in data bases, or data quality. It is also beyond the state of the art to benchmark several kinds of non-financial value, such as software projects that might improve safety or health. Outline: Function Points and Software Value Overall Corporate Benchmarks Shareholder Benchmarks Profitability Trend Analysis Operating Benchmarks Cost Metrics Value Metrics Sales Metrics Personnel Metrics Customer Metrics Competitive Metrics Quality, Warranty, and Return Metrics Where Have Function Points Been Used for Benchmarks? Operating Metrics Software Costs Software Quality Specialized Metrics Software taxation Software litigation Software company mergers Financial Value Return on Investment Process Improvements Earned Value Merging Benchmark Data with Assessment Data Benchmarks explain "how much" Assessments explain "why" Joining Assessment and Benchmark Findings Topics Lacking Effective Benchmarks Data base volumes Data quality Content of web sites Services Intangible value About the Speaker: CURRICULUM VITAE OF CAPERS JONES Capers Jones is Chief Scientist and an Executive Vice President of Artemis Management Systems. He maintains a office with Software Productivity Research, Inc., an Artemis company, in Burlington, Massachusetts. SPR was founded by Mr. Jones in 1984 and was acquired by Artemis in 1998. Mr. Jones is the designer of software cost and quality estimation tools, including SPQR/20(tm), the first commercial software estimating tool to use function points as the basis for sizing source code and other deliverables (e.g., specifications and user documents and software defects). He designed the algorithms for Checkpoint®, an integrated measurement and estimation tool with powerful quality estimation features. SPR's Research and Development group developed the KnowledgePLANÒ estimation and project planning tool using algorithms developed by Mr. Jones. Mr. Jones has also designed proprietary software cost and quality estimating tools for IBM, ITT, and AT&T. In his consulting and research work, Mr. Jones has done published research on the key differences between successful software projects and those which overrun their budgets and schedules, or are cancelled without completion. Mr. Jones is an international consultant on software management topics and the author of several works recognized in the software industry as definitive, of which the following are representative: Jones Capers; Software Assessments, Benchmarks, and Best Practices; Addison Wesley Longman, 2000. Jones, Capers, Patterns of Software System Failure and Success (International Thomson Computer Press: Boston, MA 1995). Jones, Capers, Assessment and Control of Software Risks (Prentice Hall 1994). Jones, Capers, Applied Software Measurement, second ed. (McGraw Hill 1996). Jones, Capers, Software Quality - Analysis and Guidelines for Success (International Thomson Computer Press: Boston, MA 1997). Jones, Capers, "Program Quality and Programmer Productivity"; IBM Technical Report TR07.764; IBM Santa Teresa, San Jose, CA (January 1977). Jones, Capers, "Measuring Programming Quality and Productivity"; IBM Systems Journal, Vol. 17, No. 1 (1978). Jones, Capers, Programming Productivity - Issues for the Eighties; IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, CA; first edition 1981; second edition 1986; IEEE Computer Society Catalog 681. Jones, Capers, "Becoming Best in Class"; SPR Technical Report (Software Productivity Research: Burlington, MA January 1998). Jones, Capers, "Revitalizing Project Management"; SPR Technical Report (Software Productivity Research: Burlington, MA August 1997). Jones, Capers, "The Costs, Schedule, and Value of Software Process Improvement"; SPR Technical Report (Software Productivity Research: Burlington, MA January 1998). Mr. Jones has published more than two hundred journal articles on software management topics in international magazines such as Scientific American, IEEE Spectrum, IEEE Computer, Application Development Trends, and Computer World. Mr. Jones is well known as a speaker, seminar leader and author in connection with SPR's research programs on critical software issues. His data have been requested by the U.S. Congress and the U.K. Parliament, as well as by many state and municipal governments. Other major research topics include: Software Project Management: What Works and What Doesn't? Software Quality: What Works and What Doesn't? Software Benchmarks: What Works and What Doesn't? Evaluating the Tools of Software Engineering and Management Quantifying the Results of Software Process Improvements Attributes of Successful and Failing Software Projects Before founding SPR, Mr. Jones was at the ITT Programming Technology Center in Stratford, Connecticut, where he served as Assistant Director of Programming Technology. Prior to joining ITT, Mr. Jones was at IBM for twelve years, where he received the General Product Division's outstanding contribution award for his work in software quality and productivity improvement methods. Mr. Jones began his software career as a programmer in the Office of the Surgeon General in Washington DC. He has also been a programmer/analyst for Crane Company in Chicago and has consulted for Nolan, Norton & Company in Lexington, MA. Mr. Jones holds a BA in English from the University of Florida, where he studied the application of linguistics to programming specification and design languages. Mr. Jones is a member of the IEEE Computer Society, IFPUG, and ISPA. He is on the advisory boards of several Year 2000 and risk management groups. About the Roundtables: Roundtables are focused group or "birds-of-a-feather" discussions, with a facilitator, to stimulate and moderate discussion. Roundtables are held during the Networking portion of the SPIN meeting. See our web page, to see which topics are selected for this SPIN meeting. Directions: From Route 128 in Needham, take exit 19A onto Highland Avenue East. Take your first right by the Ground Round and take your second left onto "A" Street. General Dynamics is the last building on the right. Enter the parking lot by the General Dynamics sign and come into the building by the cafeteria entrance, which is located to the left of the main entrance. There will be a security guard at the entrance. . See html for directions. Cancellations (including weather cancellations): We will notify the membership via email to the SPIN distribution list, post the notice on the SPIN web page, and send the cancellation announcement to Channel 7 TV and radio, WRKO AM 680 starting at 3pm. SPIN Sponsors: General Dynamics Communications Systems, Needham, MA, html Raytheon Corp., Lexington, MA, com Edelman & Associates, com We thank the Computer Science department of UMass-Lowell for providing support and hosting our web page.