process metrics
Thanks to Smarter Analytics, Big Data Will Be the Talk of 2015 Just because big data—which has become one of the most talked about buzzwords in the industry—hasn’t reached its full potential yet doesn’t mean it won’t. Better analytics and a greater understanding of the science behind big data will go far to make big data a much more prominent tool in 2015. |
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Long-Term Trends: Project Schedule and Productivity on the Decline QSM recently completed an analysis of how project schedule has changed over time and the subsequent impact on effort and productivity. The results indicate that project size, effort, and productivity have all decreased over time. This story explores the findings and shares some related observations. |
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In Software Development, Execution Isn’t Everything Where software development is concerned, good execution alone does not ensure a successful product. Even the best execution can’t overcome a terrible idea, a lack of shared expectations, or anything less than a total commitment to achieving excellence. Read on for tips to realize software success. |
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Take a More Agile Approach to Problem Solving Your managers want you to estimate features or projects months or even years in advance. But the work changes—or the code changes, or the people on the project change. What you thought might be a reasonable estimate four weeks ago looks wacko when you revisit it in six months. What can you do? |
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Estimate Effort Based on Past Performance How often have you estimated how long it would take to complete a task, only to be off by a whole week? That's because we assume we will begin the task immediately and have a forty-hour week to work on it. There's a better way: prediction based on performance. Just find a batch size for your work. |
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The Mismeasurement of Software Having participated in a number of unsuccessful metrics programs throughout his career, Lee Copeland has identified and distilled four key principles that help prevent the mismeasurement of software. Evaluate how your metrics work against these four principles. Do you need to make any changes? |
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Are Your Metrics Causing Unintended Consequences? When you collect metrics that involve people, it will change the way they behave—but not always for the better. Attaching numbers to how people work often makes them perform their work differently. Every time you gather metrics, you should try to analyze what the unintended consequences could be. |
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A Tale of Two Projects Large IT projects are challenging. Complexity is hard to estimate well. Big systems are tough to implement. But when you're staring at a fast-approaching deadline and you know your system will not be functional in time to meet it, there are ways of handling the situation that are better than others. |