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Spotlight
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SEPG
2009 NORTH
AMERICA |
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Visit the DCG Booth (No.
507) where we will be presenting
the
following:
- Sustainable Software
Developmentsm approach to Process
Improvement.
- Knowledge
Solution Services.sm
- CMMI Process
Library
Visit the DCG Booth or
schedule a meeting by calling Tony Timbol at
904-287-0294.
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Latest Blog Entries by
Mike Harris:
 IT Governance -
COBIT Summary Article
Project Management and Project
Portfolio Management
CIOs - Saving Money is not
enough!
What CEOs
want from CIOs
Software Measurement and
Software Process Improvement Needed
Disaster Recovery Plans for
Outsourcing
Outsourcing changes as the
crisis bites
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NOW
AVAILABLE
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"THE
BUSINESS VALUE OF IT: Managing Risks, Optimizing
Performance, and Measuring Results," by Michael D. S.
Harris, President of DCG, David Herron, Founder of DCG, and
Stasia Iwanicki, Managing Consultant is available now for
sale at amazon.com.
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Doctor
Doctor, Give me the News -
Second
Opinion Estimates 
How does that old joke
go? A fellow walks into the doctor's office with a
bad stomachache. The doctor examines him and says I
think you need your appendix out. The patient says, 'I
want a second opinion' and the doctors says '...and I
think you're ugly'. Badda-boom.
Okay, so maybe it isn't so funny anymore. Well
neither is a project estimate that is ill-conceived,
resulting in misrepresented delivery expectations. There
are times when a second opinion estimate is critical to
the on-time, on-budget delivery of software and to
ensure a high level of customer
satisfaction.
How many times have you read
about a mission critical project that has been late or
over budget or both? What went wrong? To be sure,
somewhere along the way some piece or pieces of
information were either mis-stated, mis-understood or
simply missing. Or perhaps all the information was
available; however, the process being used to generate a
reasonable and accurate estimate was faulty. In either
case, the ability to effectively estimate time and cost
of delivery was severely impacted. So how would a second
opinion alleviate missed schedules, cost overruns and
disgruntled customers?
 When
you tell your doctor that you want a second opinion
because the diagnosis doesn't seem right or the cost is
too high, what do you do? You call another doctor. You
seek another expert's advice, typically from an
objective third party. It should be the same for select
software project estimates. This is particularly true
for a mission critical project or for a very large and
very costly project. It can also prove to be of value in
assessing vendor responses to an RFP.
Read more .. |
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Easy Estimation from Use
Cases
A large number of software
development projects define their requirements through
Use Cases. This provides an ideal opportunity to
calculate an approximate size of a project, which can
then be used to establish or confirm estimates of
effort, duration and cost.
Rules of thumb exist that offer
a range of function points for each Use Case. But this
range is so broad that it is almost useless and relies
on guessing the level of detail of each Use Case and
then guessing an appropriate number of function points
from the rule-of-thumb range. A better option is to size
each Use Case using Use Case Points and then covert
these to Function Points (FP) by dividing the Use Case
Point total by 1.25.
Once you have converted
your Use Case Points to FP you can look up the ISBSG
Project Delivery Rate and Duration tables in the
Practical Project Estimation 2nd Edition book to
establish the likely effort and duration; you can use
the Comparative Estimation tool, or if you are an ISBSG
Web Subscriber you can use the online Reality Check tool
or the Early Esimate Checker tool available free with
your subscription.
Sizing Use Cases is not
prohibitively time consuming or difficult.
Even for a
novice, each Use Case should take between 30 minutes and
an hour to size depending upon its complexity. Roy Clem
has provided an excellent tutorial on how to size Use
Cases that can be downloaded from: http://cts.vresp.com/c/?InternationalSoftwar/9db33a18ee/eececfc697/dd80cfd643
David Consulting Group has also published
Use Case Point Counting Guidelines in a handy pocket
card format. For a copy email: info@davidconsultinggroup.com
Excerpt taken from eNews article, Feb
2009 |
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DCG
Training
Starting Process
Improvement...
Introduction to
CMMI
April 13-April 15,
2009, King of Prussia, PA
Price
$950.00
If you are unable to attend the
SEPG Conference for SEI-certified training, contact
Fiona Thompson at 610-644-2856 Ext
21 for more information. Register NOW.
Function
Point Analysis -
Online Training, Price
$850.00
Tues Mar 31 - Fri Mar 3, 2009,
9:00 am
- 1:00 pm EST each day.
Register
NOW
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1770 E. Lancaster Ave, Suite 15,
Paoli, PA 19301
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Measure. Improve.
Deliver | |
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