There is information and then there is knowledge that produces results. And with the constantly accelerating change in technology and business every organization can use knowledge to make the right decisions. David Consulting Group publications help you gain the right understanding on a variety of relevant and crucial topics in software sizing, software measurement, software process improvement and IT performance improvement.
Find out why the world’s leading corporations and government agencies download DCG publications and make them an indispensable part of their research and decision-making process. That same advantage can be yours. These publications include Articles, Presentations and Podcasts. Books by DCG authors are available from Amazon.com and other booksellers.
Click on any of the links below to read or download your free publication. If this is the first time you are clicking on the links below, you will be asked for your contact information as part of the free registration process just once and then you can come back to this site any time and access additional information.
| Articles |
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- The Four Pillars of PMO Performance Tip Sheet
Tony Timbol, VP, Sales and Marketing
The DCG Webinar, Strategies and Tactics for Improved PMO performance discussed the four pillars needed to close the Gap towards high performance. This is the tip sheet from that section of the Webinar.
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- CISQ Fall Status Report
David Herron, VP SD Performance Management
Read the latest status report from the Consortium for Software Quality.
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- IT-CMF Executive Overview
Mike Harris, President/CEO via Innovation Value In
There is more to IT then IT. Leveraging and optimizing the value of technology amid competing forces challenges many CIOs and their staff. DCG's introduction of The IT Capability Maturity Framework to it key US clients provides innovative and leading edge knowledge and practices backed by corporate experience and solid research. This executive summary is an entry gate for leaders looking to take their companies in new directions.
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- IT CMF Review by DCG UK
Alan Cameron, DCG LTD
At a recent meeting of CIOs in Germany, a CIO posed a question, “I am trying to develop an IT strategy for our company, but I can’t get the board to decide on a business strategy. How can I solve that problem?”
This article, by one of DCG's most experienced practitioners, supplies a review and analysis of the IT-CMF.
The IT-CMF framework may answer the question posed, not necessarily as a cure-all solution, but as a powerful set of practices equipping executive leadership for higher performance.
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- IT-CMF Case Study: Chevron (IT Innovation Management)
Mike Harris, President/CEO via Innovation Value In
Chevron has a rich history of innovation and
ingenuity is one of Chevron’s core values. The Chevron culture is a creative, innovative one and innovation has been critical to Chevron’s success. As the challenges to meet the world’s energy demands continue to grow, innovation will be that much more important to Chevron’s future. IT supports many of the processes that underpin creative breakthroughs. IT also crosses business boundaries. But with increasing demands for IT to deliver more for less it is important to ensure that capabilities for innovation are in place and that innovation is focused to truly add value. Chevron IT was interested in measuring the value that IT can deliver through investment in innovation.
Read this case study and learn how the Chevron Innovation Working Group defined a unique framework for assessing and managing IT Innovation as part of the IT-CMF.
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- IT-CMF Case Study: Intel (Enterprise Arch Mngmt)
Mike Harris, President/CEO via Innovation Value In
Intel’s need for an Enterprise Architecture
Management Framework grew as the Intel EA programme had undergone changes
in the past two years with four autonomous EA teams reorganised under one Chief Architect/Director. A dedicated team was created to develop standard practices and to develop consistent roadmaps which were more tightly integrated with Business and IT planning. The Intel team needed a framework to provide a comprehensive yet simple value based model for organising, evaluating, planning and managing Capabilities.
Read this case study on how the IT-CMF helped Intel make the changes necessary to optimize value from their EAM function.
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- IT-CMF Critical Process Roadmap
Mike Harris, President/CEO via Innovation Value In
The IT-CMF Critical Processes Roadmap provides a more detailed review of the four major domains of managing IT for value. These include managing IT as a business, managing the IT budget for maximum effect, managing IT capability for optimal performance and managing IT as a portfolio of benefits.
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- IT-CMF Case Study: British Petroleum (BP) (Enterprise Arch Mngmt)
Mike Harris, President/CEO via Innovation Value In
BP’s need for Architecture Management across a wide large organization became more and more of an issue with growth. BP operates within a federated structure of
Architecture with a consolidated Group EA function responsible for setting group-level technical standards and coordinating architecture activities across all the business facing IT teams. Each major business unit has an embedded IT function (Integrated Supply & Trading, Exploration and Production and Refining and Marketing) with a Chief Architect who is responsible for embedding local Architecture Management practices.
Read this case study on how the IT-CMF helped BP in leveraging economies of scale and realize other benefits.
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- Harris Heirarchy of Software Development
Mike Harris, President/CEO & Tom Cagley, VP Proces
Presented at the SERP'11 - The 2011 International Conference on Software Engineering Research and Practice, World Congress on July 20, 2011.
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- DCG Trusted Advisor: IEEE Report on Estimation Too
Tony Timbol, VP, Sales and Marketing
This is a review of the IEEE Report on Estimation Tools. It is part of the webinar, Estimation, Estimation Maturity and Functional Metrics.
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- Identifying Your Organizations Best Practices 2010
David Herron, VP Solutions
Best Practice is a term thrown around a lot these days. Most organizations that remain in business are in some ways executing some best practices; therefore, they must be doing something right and doing the "best" they can. Or are they? This article clears up some confusion on the term best practice and provides some guidelines on how you can identify what are your best practices that can truly help your business.
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- Process Improvement for All: What to Expect from C
Mike Phillips and Sandy Shrum Software Engineering
From CrossTalk Jan/Feb Issue, 2010. - The next release of the CMMI Product Suite—an approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes that ultimately improve their performance—is expected in November 2010. This Version 1.3 (V1.3) release includes improvements to CMMI for Development (CMMI-DEV), CMMI for Acquisition (CMMI-ACQ), and CMMI for Services (CMMI-SVC) models all during the same development cycle. This cycle also includes improvements to the appraisal method (SCAMPI) and CMMI-related training. The improvements planned for CMMI models do not require major changes or retraining for those currently using CMMI.
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- Engineering Reviews made more effective
Jitendra Subramanyam, CAST Research Labs
The later you find a software defect, the exponentially more expensive it gets to fix. That’s the most quoted statistic in software engineering. The sooner you find and fix software defects the better off you are.
So why don’t we do formal inspections, aka code reviews, find problems early, fix them fast, and take the weekends off?
This article examines the benefits of extending human expertise using Smart Automation.
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- Six Rookie Mistakes in Vendor Management
Mike Harris, DCG President
Outsourcing is about adding a competitive
link to your ‘VALUE CHAIN,’ not just a cheap cog in your supply chain. At the end of the day you must have added value that supports your business objectives. This article talks about avoiding mistakes common to organizations that are new to outsourcing.
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- Function Point Modeler Analysis: A white paper
Manfred Bundschuh, DCG Germany
The purpose of this paper is to give you an overview of the new International Software Benchmarking Standard Group (ISBSG) database import interface for Function Point Modeler™ Enterprise Edition. It also details the process of the ISBSG database import and provides an example.
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- The Value Tetrahedron
Alan Cameron, DCG LTD
This paper introduces the concept of the Value Tetrahedron, one which has been developed for business use of software metrics. The Value Tetrahedron enables a business to understand the balance between technical debt and software development performance based on software metrics where technical debt is the inherent indebtedness of an organization due to deviations from technical and architectural standards and uncleared known and unknown defects. The concept of the Value Tetrahedron allows an organisation to make informed decisions about the level of technical debt that it is willing to carry within its systems and portfolio.
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- Function Points have Changed! Now 4.3
Sheila Dennis, DCG
Version 4.3 – What does it mean to you?
There are two facets of the CPM v 4.3 that become evident when one studies the changes from 4.2: (1) The structure and wording of the CPM have changed significantly, however (2) The counting process, and the ensuing results, have not changed significantly. Specifically, CPM 4.2 was revised into 4.3 to further clarify the existing rules, delete redundancies, be more succinct and less ambiguous, provide more examples and clarification, and to align with the ISO standards. The restructure of the 4.2 CPM (4 parts) into the 4.3 version (5 parts) resulted in a publication which is now 100% ISO compliant. A summary of the 5 parts is further outlined in this article.
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- Second Opinion on Estimates
David Herron
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.
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- Agile Estimation Using Functional Metrics White Pa
Tom Cagley
Estimation has been a lightning rod for the discussion all methods (agile, waterfall, iterative or water fountain) with the issues of predictability and standardization radiating outward. Because of the controversy this is an area where a wide range of hybridization has always occurred. Organizations adjust techniques to fit governance structures, culture and risk profiles. There is no one size fits all solution.
This paper provides a path for incorporating the use of function points into agile estimation techniques. The process will yield an estimation process that combines one part functional metrics, one part parametric estimation techniques with two parts agile estimation (heavily influenced by Mike Cohn).
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- Toxic Applications: Defuse your Timebombs
Dr. Bill Curtis, SVP and Chief Scientist, CAST
Toxic applications should be every C-level executive’s worst nightmare, but few
are even aware of them or the dangers they pose. Yet, C-level executives are
ones held accountable to stockholders, regulators, and customers when these
time bombs explode and destroy business value.
This paper introduces the concept of toxic applications and explains why C-level
executives need to pay attention to them now. It provides actionable guidelines
for engaging in productive dialogue with IT management to make the right riskcost-
benefit tradeoffs for significantly improving the business value of mission critical
applications.
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- One Size Fits...Someone other than Me
Tom Cagley, VP, IT and SP Improvement
Changing human behavior and software engineering mechanics is a messy business despite the theorists’ best efforts to define a single model that can best guide organizations. This is because both are inherently non-linear, if for no other reason than humans are involved. It is well known that any system no matter how carefully constructed is inherently non-linear if it includes humans and that combining two or more non-linear systems will yield chaos (eventually). To read more, download now.
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- Turning perfectly good words into numbers
Tom Cagley, VP SW Measurement
Have you ever been presented with a set of requirements and been asked to size and estimate the project? Turning Perfectly Good Words into Numbers presents a set of semantic techniques for converting software requirements into function points (size) much earlier in the development lifecycle than thought possible. Quick and Early Function Points, and extension of standard function point analysis techniques, provide a basis for applying many of the same techniques for sizing that would work anytime in a project. Sizing quickly and early in the life cycle using concepts you learned in grade school like sentence diagramming from English class creates a scenario for estimators and project managers where life could not get much better!
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- Extracting Real Value from Process Improvement
Tom Cagley, Vice President, Director Software Proc
Originally published in the Cutter IT Journal, this article discusses a value extraction approach to process improvement.
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- Why can't we estimate better?
Sheila Dennis & David Herron
Everyone agrees that software estimating continues to be an ongoing problem for IT managers. Sometimes there is a perception that an estimation model is a black box with a magic process from which the absolute answer appears, when indeed, an estimate is just that – an estimate. We need to reframe our thinking about estimating and view it as a vehicle to manage customer and management expectations based on the best available information at that point in time.
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- Developing the Future CIO
David Herron & Marilyn Edelson
A recent report from the Society for Information Management Advanced Practices Council, “Grooming the 2010 CIO", predicted a shortage of qualified CIOs in the years ahead. In this thought-provoking article learn to spot potential CIOs and help your organization prepare for the future.
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- Are CMM Program Investments beneficial?
Galin and Avrahami
A review of the literature on CMM program
investments indicates that they improved
performance consistently for seven
common software development
metrics. Article by Daniel Galin, Ruppin Academic Center; Motti Avrahami, Lipman Electronic Engineering.
Copyright 2006 IEEE Software Nov/Dec Issue, available here by permission from IEEE Software.
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- VENDOR SELECTION: A RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
Koni Thompson Houston, DCG
When asked about their recent outsourcing experiences, most company representatives say selecting the right vendor is paramount to success. But how can you be sure you have the right vendor to meet your needs?
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- METRICS AND GOVERNANCE IN OUTSOURCING
Tom Cagley, Vice President, Process Improvement &
Successful outsourcing arrangements require that all parties pay continuous attention to the goals of the engagement. But the phrase "continuous attention" is nearly an oxymoron, given the differing corporate cultures, short attention spans, and competing channels of information involved in outsourcing. Contracts often contain one or more tools intended to focus the parties' attention, typically as a portion of the governance covenantts. The tools currently in vogue include metrics, service-level agreements, balanced scorecards, and CMMI goals.
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- PROPERLY FRAMING SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS
David Herron, DCG Founder
Service level agreements (SLAs) are one of the most critical components of an outsourcing arrangement. When properly designed and executed, SLAs drive desired behaviors, monitor performance and guide the governance of contractually agreed objectives...
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- A PRESCRIPTIVE TEMPLATE FOR OUTSOURCING
Koni Thompson Houston, DCG
The Software Engineering Institute's (SEI) Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI(R)) identifies tasks and activities that provide a framework for advancing an organization to various levels of process reengineering and maturity.....
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- Controlling Software Acquisition Costs With Functi
Ian Brown
Too often, organizations that contract for software development services are at the mercy of vendors for cost and schedule estimates. Once a program office releases a request for proposal (RFP) for software development, it must somehow evaluate the
validity of cost and schedule estimates that come back with the proposals. Or, a program might have a limited budget or schedule but not a clear understanding of what amount of development is actually feasible within these limitations. This article
proposes an approach that can help buyers of software take control of this situation by providing the ability to objectively
evaluate software development proposals, select the best value for their needs, and effectively manage acquisition costs from kickoff to product delivery.
Reprinted by permission of the author
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- Using Peer Review Data to Manage Defects
Steve Lett
Peer reviews, in particular software inspections, have become accepted within the software industry as a cost effective way of removing defects as early as possible in the software development cycle.[1] The peer review process is also quite easy to measure. However, relatively few software project managers take an active interest in the data from the peer reviews taking place on their project and miss a golden opportunity to identify potential product defect issues and take corrective action. This article describes one way in which peer review data can be utilized for managing software defects in much the same way cost and schedule data are used to manage project budget and schedule commitments.
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- FP Counting in a Real-Time Environment
David Garmus
This article addresses the IFPUG extension of Function Points as a metric into the real-time systems environment. The Function Point metric is currently being applied successfully as a measurement tool by a large number of organizations in the real-time environment.
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- Managing Organizational Change
David Herron
This is the companion white paper to the "Managing Organizational Change" webinar. Read about the hard reality that some improvement programs can and do fail but also how you can manage to receive the benefits of a successful Software Process Improvement program.
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- Agile & Declaration of Interdependence: A new appr
Michael Harris
There has been much said and written about the mythical “conflict” between the values and principles of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development and those of Software Process Improvement embodied in Models such as CMMI. However, there is increasing experience (and evidence at SEPG and other conferences) that shows that both sets of values and principles can be combined to deliver more value to an enterprise than either one on its own. A less well known descendant of the Agile Manifesto is the Declaration of Interdependence (DOI) (www.pmdoi.org) which seeks to extend the Agile Manifesto to non-software products, project management and management in general.
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- Put me in Coach I am ready to play!
David Herron
Have you noticed an increase in the number of articles on professional and personal coaching? What exactly is professional and personal coaching? Who are these coaches, and who is getting coached? To learn more about coaching, download this article.
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- Customer Satisfaction – Measuring the Rate
Tom Cagley and David Herron
There are any number of reasons why IT organizations execute a formal customer satisfaction survey. Regardless of the reason the goal is to transfer measurement of customer satisfaction from a post-facto critique into a proactive process improvement tool. Read how DCG helped a key client measure customer satisfaction as a measure of process improvement.
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- How Coaching Helps IT Teams
David Herron, Mike Harris and Marilyn Edelson
The ever changing environment for the successful management and delivery of business solutions has created many challenges for software development teams. Leading edge companies are discovering that training augmented by either one-on-one executive coaching and/ or team coaching is frequently necessary and one of the most cost-effective ways to manage.
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- Improved Performance...From Process Improvement
David Garmus and Stasia Iwanicki
This article, Improved Performance Should be Expected from Process Improvement, was originally published in the Software Tech News, Vol. 10, No. 1, March 2007.
Improved performance in software development can be achieved by investing in best software development practices. Results can be measured by reduced project duration, decreased effort and better delivered product quality. This article will discuss how one organization identified the improvements by using a combination of quantitative measures and qualitative values. Based on the knowledge gained, the organization has utilized the results to advance their process improvement programs and improve their development practices throughout.
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- Defining ITIL Key Performance Indicators
Diane Bloodworth & David Herron
Implementing ITIL yields many benefits as a common language, service structure and methodology are applied to your IT processes. Adding key performance indicators to ITIL helps you quantitatively manage your ITIL processes at a high level.
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- Effective Measures for Project Managers
Michael Harris and David Herron
Software Project Managers have many responsibilities ranging from managing customer expectations to directing internal resources towards a successful software build. That said, their easiest path to a quiet life is to design, develop and deploy software on time, on budget and with a high degree of quality. Why, then, do industry publications continue to unveil stories about failed projects and the financial impact they have had on the organization? Of course, not all projects fail. When we do read about successes we learn that these projects were well managed and effectively controlled. So what is missing or what is the gap between project success and project failure?
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- The Miracle in Detroit: Putting the ROI into ITIL
SolidCore Systems
How do you put the ROI in ITIL? That is the question many IT organizations are grappling with today. This article is
based on conversations with IT executives in Fortune 2000 companies, all of whom see value in using the ITIL
framework, but are trying to figure out where to start, how to quantify benefits, how to justify it at a business level
and how to make a smooth transition into an ITIL world. We were on a quest to find the answer and one day, sitting
in the office of a senior executive at one of the largest companies in Detroit, the answer presented itself. We call this
the “Miracle in Detroit” and we want to share it with you.
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- Myths of Outsourcing - Cutter Consortium
Thomas M. Cagley, Jr. - DCG
As organizations use outsourcing to manage numerous factors ranging from
cost containment to capacity management, it’s clear that the use of sourcing as both a tactical and strategic tool is not a short-term phenomenon. Time and experience have led to the accumulated outsourcing lore, which is based on a mix of opinions, facts, and urban myths.
This Executive Report aims to help separate fact from fiction.
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- CAI State of the Practice Interview
ITMPI Journal
Read this informative interview with DCG founder and industry expert, David Garmus
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- News Story on CCH Canada Appraisal by DCG
Murray Townsend
Copyright "The Bottom Line" December 2006. Read about CCH's Canada's successful experience in getting to CMMI Level 3 with DCG help.
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- Identifying your Organizaton's Best Practices
David Herron and David Garmus
Published in CrossTalk Magazine, this detailed article discusses how organizations strive to improve the design, development, and delivery of software solutions and depend on an effective combination of
processes, tools, and methods. Finding the right combination requires careful analysis of the variables that influence
gains in productivity and quality. By utilizing industry benchmark data and performance indicators, organizations can collect
and analyze their own data to determine the combination of processes, tools, and methods that provide the greatest impact
on their performance. This article reports on three client case studies that incorporated various measurement techniques to
determine best practices.
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- IT Metrics and Benchmarking Vol 2
David Garmus, Guest Editor, Cutter IT Journal
This issue of Cutter IT Journal is a follow-on to the prior Vol 1 issue, which offered ideas on the management, development, implementation, and maintenance of IT metrics. In this issue we introduce process improvement and guidance on the management, development, implementation, and maintenance of a measurement process that recognizes process improvement.
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- Introduction to Function Points
Sheila Dennis and David Garmus
The industry standard metric of software functional size is clearly explained in this updated article published recently in software industry journals and magazines. Recently published in the DOD Software Tech News, June 2006, Vol. 9, #2 Issue.
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- IT Metrics and Benchmarking Vol 1
David Garmus, Guest Editor, Cutter IT Journal
Many organizations today are attempting to realize the benefits of IT metrics and benchmarking — some successfully and some not so successfully. This edition includes various articles from experienced practiioners who share these useful experiences for the readers benefit.
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- CAI State of the Practice Interview
ITMPI Journal
Read this informative interview with DCG founder and industry expert, David Herron
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- FP Lite - An Alternative Approach to Sizing
Sheila Dennis and David Herron
Past criticisms of FPA have included concerns that it takes to long; it requires too much detail; it is too difficult to implement; and it costs too much. A recent study has shown that an adaptation of the FPA methodology – FP Lite™ – is a reasonable alternative to the detailed FPA method, and in fact, addresses many of the criticisms that have been levied in the past. This paper introduces the FP Lite™ methodology in correlation with two studies designed to statistically understand the accuracy of the FP Lite™ methodology in contrast to the detailed FPA method.
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- Principles of Sizing and Estimating Using Function
David Garmus
Understand the basic principles of sizing and estimating as related to using the function point metric. Originally published in the DOD Software Tech News, June 2006, Vol. 9, #2 Issue.
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If you are interested in more free publications like these, let us know about your specific interest area by e-mailing us at info@davidconsultinggroup.com and we will get back to you right away!
| Presentations |
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- Estimation Clinic Preview Quest 2012
Tony Timbol, VP, Sales and Marketing
This preview of the Quest 2012 DCG Estimation Clinic outlines what will be covered in the half day session in Chicago May 1, 2012. Methods, Maturity and Money are the three major areas of discussion.
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- Functional Metrics 2012-Driving Strategic Change at the Executive level
David Herron, VP SD Performance Management
These webinar companion slides outline how data is used to help drive strategic change. How Functional metrics allow you to measure effectively in the drive for change is reviewed and discussed.
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- Manage IT like a Business: What you need to know...an IT-CMF Executive Overview
Mike Harris, President/CEO, IT-CMF Certified Pract
The IT Capability Management Framework (IT-CMF) is an innovation and value approach that changes the way IT contributes to the business. Don't let the cloud and commoditization limit your technology horizons. Learn to go beyond being a cost center and understand how IT can contribute at every step of the value chain.
These slides are a companion to the webinar.
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- Better Estimation, Better Decisions
David Herron, VP SD Performance Management
A project manager makes many important decisions throughout the life of a project. Decisions regarding resources, expenses, and schedules are just a small part of what they are being asked to manage. Many of the decisions a project manager makes are dependent upon having good information and being able to use that information to produce realistic plans and estimates. In this webinar, David Herron will examine what information is necessary to produce realistic estimates allowing for better and more informed decisions.
These slides accompany the Better Estimation, Better Decisions Webinar.
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- The Magical World of Measurement: DCG Innovation Award Winner 2011
Gordana Kis, BMO
This was the winning presentation of the DCG Innovation Award given every year at ISMA. Gordana Kis, CSQA of the Bank of Montreal was the 2011 winner.
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- Strategies and Tactics for improved PMO performance
Tony Timbol, VP, Sales and Marketing
This presentation and companion Webinar provides an update on latest PMO researach and outlines the four best practices that lead to higher PMO performance.
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- CMMI 1.3 Appraisals-What you need to know
Pat Eglin, Certified CMMI Instructor
Learn what you need to know about the new sampling factors and team requirements for V1.3 appraisals. This webinar will review appraisal basics to help you get started. You will walk through the objectives of an appraisal and learn how to identify the scope of the organization.
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- KanBan Can Can!
Tom Cagley, VP Process and Measurement
Can lean principles be applied to Software Development? What would plant floor waste minimization, just in time systems teach software artists about being more productive? This presentation and companion webinar recording provide a fascinating perspective to these questions.
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- Agile Estimation using Functional Metrics
Tom Cagley, VP Process and Measurement
This is the companion presentation to the Agile Estimation Using Functional Metrics Webinar presented on October 13, 2011. See Webinar page on DCG website for audio replay.
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- CMMI and Agile
Tom Cagley, VP Process and Measurement
The CMMI and Agile relationship can be cooperative and not a source of conflict. How?
Tom Cagley explains in this presentation and companion webinar how Agile is more structured than you think and CMMI is more flexible than you can imagine. In fact, both can benefit your process improvement actions.
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- Estimation Workshop Preview
Tony Timbol, VP, Sales and Marketing
Get a preview of what is inside DCG's 3 Day Estimation Workshop and understand what outcomes your organization will benefit from. These slides accompany the archived recording from the 09/13/2011 webinar.
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- Strategies and Tactics for improved PMO performanc
Tony Timbol, VP, Sales and Marketing
Effective PMO's share four basic advanced practices that help close the gap towards higher performance. This presentation and companion webinar provide background and information on proven strategies and tactics.
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- PMOs are from Mars, Agile is from Venus
Tom Cagley, VP Process and Measurement
PMOs and Agile groups can work together cooperatively despite their inherent different roles. Tom Cagley discusses how to listen and integrate the different voices in the organization to improve effectiveness.
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- Measurement Roadmap Fundamentals-Less is more
Tom Cagley, VP Process and Measurement
Effective measurement requires fewer measures! But to make it so, they have to be linked to organizational goals or they have no value. Tom Cagley discusses how to make sure what you are measuring will lead to better decision making for you and your organization.
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- Agile Estimation using Functional Metrics
Tom Cagley, VP Process and Measurement
This is the companion presentation to the Agile Estimation Using Functional Metrics Webinar presented on July 14, 2011. See Webinar page on DCG website for audio replay.
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- Estimation, Estimation Maturity and Functional Met
Tony Timbol, VP, Sales and Marketing
Estimation still challenges organizations today. Why? These companion slides to the recorded webinar outline the challenges and benefits of higher estimation maturity and how high performing organizations move from experienced based estimating to statistical based estimation.
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- Function Point Fundamentals for Executive Leadersh
Tony Timbol, VP, Sales and Marketing
This is a simple, basic overview of function points benefits and uses for executive leadership.
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- How the PMO can Help Agile
David Herron, VP SD Performance Management
A question that seems to be circulating within IT organizations these days is whether or not the Project Management Office (PMO) roles and responsibilities are adaptable to supporting agile projects. Do the traditional PMO practices fit the agile models such as scrum or feature-driven development? This presentation will serve to advance that discussion by presenting observations from recent client experiences as well as sharing some of the current thinking on the subject of PMO’s and their role in supporting agile.
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- Advanced FP Training Overview
Sheila Dennis, VP, CFPS
Becoming a more proficient function point counter means keeping up with the ever-changing technology landscape. This brief overview, presented in the DCG Webinar, provides function point counters an understanding of what training they would receive in the DCG Advanced Function Point training course. Presented by Sheila Dennis, VP and CFPS
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- PMO Survey Finding Results
David Herron, VP SD Performance Management
DCG Research on PMO activities produces insightful data on PMOs' their nature, value contribution and list of activities. These slides and the companion webinar are publically available
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- Functional Metrics-Driving Strategic Change at the
David Herron, VP SD Performance Management
Using data to drive decisions sounds easy but creating lasting changes requires consensus around a solid set of facts. This webinar and these slides present how functional metrics can help drive strategic change.
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- What you need to know about CMMI V 1 3
Pat Eglin
The new CMMI 1.3 specification updates the 1.2 standard. Is your organization ready for the changes? This webinar, by SEI Certified instructor Pat Eglin, outlines the changes in the 1.3 standard and how it could affect your organization.
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- Measurement Roadmap-How to do with less
Tom Cagley
DCG's Measurement Roadmap gives software leaders the tools to align tactical metrics with strategic objectives using a consensus building approach. For organization's struggling to measure and manage effectively across multiple lines of business, this roadmap could chart a way forward. These slides are from the recent webinar, whose recording is also available.
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- PMO Broken Promises: Strategies and Tactics for im
Tony Timbol, David Herron
This presentation outlines why the PMO concept has not always contributed to improved performance and how these insights can help you craft strategies and tactics to raise your level of project performance and develop a more mature and effective PMO. See the companion Webinar replay.
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- Estimation Workshop Preview
Tony Timbol
This presentation previews the DCG 3 day Estimation Seminar/Workshop provided to companies to help them transform their estimation practices from functional to world class. Everyone has an estimation process in place but taking it to the next level of higher performance requires a structured change initiative that must be driven internal to be successful. Listen to the audio recording of this webinar in the webinar archive section.
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- Preparing for Portofolio Management Success
Tom Cagley, VP, Process Improvement
Preparing your organization for the cultural and technical change that a Portfolio Management System brings is a challenge. Whether you are implementing a tool or creating process, there are best practices that can support your success before you buy or start.
Spend 30 minutes with the Tom Cagley for a review of the best practices in Portfolio management preparation. It will provide you perspective and insight you may not have thought of.
Presented by Tom Cagley and Tony Timbol.
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- Engineering Reviews Made Easier
Tony Timbol, VP
DCG and CAST Software will show how a consensus Application Engineering Review analysis of your application portfolio (or subset) will support improved product quality and faster time to market. Get everyone talking on the same page and moving in the same direction.
A Webinar replay is available along with these slides.
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- An Emerging Global Definition of Quality
Tony Timbol, VP Sales and Marketing
Quality? What does it mean? A more complex question than you realize. Often, organizations define quality in local, tribal terms that can help but limits valuable comparison to other best practices.
DCG is part of the CISQ - Consortium for IT Software Quality providing expertise and industry input. In this brief webinar, David Consulting Group (DCG) provides an update on CISQ progress and how the outcomes of this initiative can help organizations improve quality now by asking the same questions the CISQ community is asking itself.
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- DCG Measurement Roadmap: Doing more with fewer mea
Tom Cagley, VP Measurement
DCG's Measurement Roadmap gives software leaders the tools to align tactical metrics with strategic objectives using a consensus building approach. For organization's struggling to measure and manage effectively across multiple lines of business, this roadmap could chart a way forward.
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- PMO Best Practices Closing the Performance Gap
David Herron
Project Management Offices - A great idea made ineffective by poor execution. Great PMOs help organizations get things done. Unfortunately, industry studies show that most PMO's have become PAOs, project administrator offices, lacking influence to help projects meet tactical and strategic objectives. Learn how your PMO can become great by closing the gap on performance with proven best practices.
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- Functional Metrics and Early Estimation
Tom Cagley, VP Measurement
A CAI ITMPI presentation by DCG's Tom Cagley on Functional Metrics for application development and how early estimation can help your organizations improved portfolio management.
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- Function Point Fundamentals and DCG University
Tony Timbol, VP
A brief introduction to function points, its uses and benefits and a tour of the DCG University learning portal.
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- Trust but Verify: Using on-off Estimation
David Herron
Improving on-time delivery is depended on many factors. Starting the project off right with an estimate that everyone believes is real and not a wild guess helps set proper momentum.
These webinar slides discuss the importance of effective estimation and how th DCG Estimation on Demand Service can help you advance your on-time delivery goals.
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- Mastering Software Project Management
Tom Cagley, VP Measurement
Learn more about Tom Cagley's and Murali Chemuturi's contribution to the Software Project Management body of knowledge.
The new book is available today at Amazon.com
A webinar replay is also available along with these slides.
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- BenchMarkGPS: Lower your cost of performance
Tom Cagley, VP Measurement
DCG's BenchmarkGPS provides a roadmap to lower the cost of performance measurement thereby helping you make better decisions using less data. Less is more! This webinar outlines a path for incorporating this practice of targeted performance measurement at much lower costs.
A Webinar replay is available along with these slides
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- Effective Estimation: Tips, Tools and Techniques
David Herron, DCG
This presentation address issues concerning effective estimation. A Basic Estimating Model is discussed along with common sense techniques, use of historical and industry data and automated/on-demand estimation. This was first presented on CAI ITMPI Webinar on 3/10/2010.
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- Quick and Early Function Points: Measure Early
Tony Cagley
Sizing quickly and early in the life cycle using concepts you learned in grade school creates a scenario for estimators and project managers where they can turn early requirement WORDS into NUMBERS. How easy is that!
These slides and the companion webinar replay are available also at the webinar page on the DCG website.
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- Function Points have Changed! FP 4.3, What you nee
Sheila Dennis, DCG
These webinar presentation slides provide information on the important changes to the CPM 4.2 standard which now is updated to 4.3.
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- Data Driven IV&V Peer Reviews: Science Fact not Fi
Tony Timbol, DCG & Jitendra Subrayam, CAST Softwar
Data Driven IV&V Quality Assurance - Transform Peer Reviews with Science Fact not Fiction. Peer Reviews are a low cost, high return investment of time that can be done anywhere in the software development lifecycle. However, many organizations struggle with the process that often becomes politically charged and opinion based. This presentation and companion Webinar (replay available) provide new perspectives to transform your peer review process.
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- CMMI for Small Business
David Herron
These slides were from the CMMI for Small Business webinar where we showed you how you can quickly and economically achieve the necessary CMMI maturity level with our newly designed CMMI for Small Businesses program. Included in this session will be a review of the CMMI compliant artifacts, tools and techniques we provide to help you jump start your CMMI initiative.
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- Automated Function Point Counting is Useful Now!
Mike Haris, President, DCG
Presented at the Best Practices Conference, Paris, France, Nov. 2009, this discussion focused on the state of the industry regarding automated function point counting and options available to companies looking to leverage this best practice method.
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- Esitmating On-Demand: Better Information, Better D
David Herron, DCG Founder
Have you ever had a project come in late or over budget? Of course you have, and you’re not alone
Are unrealistic schedules imposed upon you?
Many companies have indicated to us that this is a problem
Is the accuracy of your project estimates questionable?
What would your customers say?
Very few organizations have effective sizing and estimating practices. The reasons are many and so are the excuses.
These slides were presented in a DCG University webinar and presents an economical and realistic solution to your estimating woes. Estimating on demand is a service that can provide you with the information you need to make better and more informed decisions.
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- Functional Metrics In Agile Estimation November 20
Tom Cagley
Webinar presentation on Agile Estimation Using Functional Metrics. See companion White Paper in Article Section.
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- Is Automated Function Point Counting Useful Yet?
Mike Harris, DCG and David Kempsity, Zurich Insura
This presentation was given at the 2009 UK Software Metrics Association Annual Meeting and included:
-Review IFPUG Tool Certification Requirements
-Introduction of counting capabilities in the market
-Report of Zurich’s experiences with tools
-Suggestions on automated function point counting
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- Process Improvement in a Multi-Model World
Tom Cagley
Model based process improvement typically has centered on a single model or framework as the lynch pin to control software process improvement within an organization. The use of a model or framework is an excellent means of reducing random activity unfortunately one model does not cover the whole organization. Process improvement has matured to a point where the span of control needs to be extended which suggests the use of more than one model (e.g. CMMI and ISO, ITIL, Business Process Re-engineering and CMMI).
These slides were presented on the webinar with Tom Cagley that discussed how to manage process improvement in a complex, multi-model environment.
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- What are you getting for your maintenance dollar?
David Garmus
These webinar presentation slides discuss what value your are receiving form your Software Maintenance Investment Dollar. Presented during CAI ITMPI webinar series.
Topics covered included:
Identifying Your Organization’s Needs
Comprehensive Measures Available
Legacy System Characteristics
Critical IT Needs Of Your Organization
The Need For Measurement In Your Organization
Application & Project Attributes
Project & Application Portfolio Support Rates
Identifying & Estimating Best Practices
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- If it runs, it must be High Quality! Application Q
Tony Timbol
If it runs, it must be high quality! Understanding your Application Quality metrics will help you improve performance and reduce risk. Progressive CIOs and their teams have more than opinion about their critical applications, they have data. Find out how to get actionable quality data about your critical application.
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- Reducing your Software Costs: Method and Plan
Mike Harris
Presented at the June 2009 Paris Conference with Michelin. Topics include
What can be achieved quickly?
4 major steps to cost savings
Quantitative & Qualitative Assessments
Establishing and Using Baseline Data
Modeling Improved Performance
Acting on Results
Who else has done this?
Key Success Factors
Conclusions
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- Portfolio and Project Management: Keeping IT Simpl
David Herron, DCG & Monique Crete, PieMatrix
David Consulting Group (DCG) and PIEmatrix will show you how best practice processes and project portfolios can be executed and governed with a real-time software-as-a-service (SaaS) collaborative platform. We will show you how this solution will make it easy for all team members to improve productivity and for management to gain transparency and predictability with a real-time simple dashboard.
This webinar presentation is a must for all executives, project managers, process engineers, and key stakeholders responsible for IT governance
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- Agile and Sustainable Software Development
Tom Cagley
Discussion and data on the effectiveness of Agile approaches to sustaining software development across all types of organization.
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- We’re Making Progress, Trust Me! Measuring Process
David Herron
Can 'Software as a Service' be a value-added proposition to your software process improvement initiative?
In a word - yes! Process and project management tools are available in a software as a service format and can add value to most process improvement initiatives. This presentation given at a DCG/CAI Webinar discusses this valuable path to improved performance.
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- KSS Size Matters
David Herron
Size matters when developing application software. this presentation and the companion webinar are available for your learning needs.
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- CMMI for Services - Critical Facts TO KNOW before
Pat Eglin, CMMI Instructor/Consultant
CMMI for Services provides service based organizations a process framework for world class performance--but is it right for you?
This webinar provides a critical facts overview to help you understand your options, potential costs and timelines before you invest your valuable resources.
Presented by Pat Eglin, DCG Certified CMMI for Services Consultant and CMMI Instructor.
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- 6 Truths about IT Estimation you must know
Karen McRitchie & Tony Timbol
This webinar presentation discusses the 6 essential truths you must know about IT Estimation and how they affect your project performance. Included is a brief overview of the SEER FOR IT (non-software) project estimation tool available from Galorath.
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- Goal Driven Measurement IFPUG 2008
Terry Voght, BAH
This DCG Innovation Works! award winning presentation outlines the importance of linking measurements to outcomes that support the goals of the business. First presented at the IFPUG 2008 ISMA Conference in Arlington, VA.
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- How to leverage publicaly available DCG Industry D
Tony Timbol
“DCG wants to promote statistically-sound measurement and benchmarking of software development performance in the IT industry. By making this data available, we believe CIOs, CTOs and Application Management leadership will have additional insights into the performance of their organizations which will prompt some interesting and beneficial questions. This has helped DCG clients in the past and we think it is time now for greater awareness and availability.” – Mike Harris, DCG President. This presentation was given at a DCG on-line Webinar in Oct, 2008.
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- How Much IT is Enough?
Mike Harris, DCG President
IT is a strategic differentiator often a single force that determines the speed and agility, of an organization. It's the race car for the journey toward world-class results. It provides safety (quality), high performance (speed) and superior mpg (cost or efficiency). Are you prepared to be on the waiting list for the Lamborghini?
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- Beyond Functions Points 101
Tom Cagley & Sheila Dennis
This webinar presentation by Tom Cagley & Sheila Dennis will discuss advanced practices of the Function Point Metric used by organizations worldwide to accurately size systems in an effort to meet customer demand on time and within budget.
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- A Cost Effective Approach to Enterprise SPI
Tom Cagley / Pat Eglin
Corporate acquisitions and organic growth have resulted in the proliferation of organizations that are geographically, operationally and culturally diverse. This webinar presentation by Tom Cagley/Pat Eglin discusses how to blend an enterprise wide approach to global process improvement with an agile approach to local software process improvement in such a way that large multinational organizations can derive benefits.
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- How do you measure the Value of IT?
Mike Harris, President, DCG
• Abstract: This webinar presentation reviews the most frequently used financial and non-financial measures of IT value.
• All measurements, including IT value measurements, are only useful and worth making if they are used to guide decisions.
• This means that all measurements have to be available to or, better, regularly presented to decision makers.
• •In the context of businesses making decisions based on the value of IT, this means that IT must regularly present its measurements to the business decision makers. •Different decision makers require different information and different levels of detail of the same information. The webinar will propose some ways of presenting value information for decisions. This webinar is based on Chapter 2 of “The Business Value of IT” by Michael D.S. Harris, David Herron and Stasia Iwanicki (Auerbach, March 2008).
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- Function Point Primer
Sheila Dennis, VP, Software Sizing Practice
This webinar presentation provides an introduction and overview of function point counting, the industry standard software sizing metric.
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- VVF Webinar: Does One Size Fit All in Process Impr
Tom Cagley, VP IT and Software Process Improvement
Changing human behavior and software engineering mechanics is a messy business despite the theorists’ best efforts to define a single model that can best guide organizations. This was presented by DCG in a recent webinar.
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- IT Value Webinar: What businesses should expect fr
Mike Harris, President, DCG
This presentation makes current IT best practices accessible and understandable to business managers. Too often, IT projects and operations fail because business expectations are unrealistically high in terms of what can be achieved in a given time at a given quality and budget. And too often, IT providers have unreasonably low expectations regarding the same. What is lacking on both sides is a knowledge of what can be realistically achieved by combining a clearly prioritized set of business needs with well-established IT industry best practices. This presentation provides an overview of COBIT, ITIL and CMMI and explains how the three can work together to help address these issues. See also the webinar recording of this presentation on the Webinar Archive page.
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- CMMI Metrics - Establishing a Compliant Program
Pat Eglin
This presentation, given at a recent DCG / MKS Webinar outlines the considerations and issues to address in implementing CMMI Level 3 measurements.
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- Implementing a Software Measurement Program
David Garmus
Learn the fundamental elements of a software measurement program that supports your business success. Given at a recent CAI global webinar.
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- CMMI Enforcement - MKS Integrity
MKS
MKS Integrity has been configured with DCG CMMI templates and methods and been used effectively to manage CMMI implementations. This presentation discusses the benefits of using MKS Integrity in a CMMI enforcement role.
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- Implementing Lean in CMMI
Tom Cagley, VP IT and SP Improvement
Presented at the TAMPA and ATLANTA Spins.
Implementing the CMMI can take many paths. Paths range from classic plan driven implementations to implementations that embrace agile practices. Regardless of the path you have chosen embracing lean philosophies can fundamentally improve the effectiveness, efficiency and acceptance of the processes you implement. The presentation will discuss implementing the CMMI leveraging the seven philosophies of lean software development.
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- Performance Benchmarking for the Bottom Line
Tom Cagley, DCG
This presentation was orginially presented on a joint DCG/CAI webainr in October 2007. This presentation discusses how measurement and benchmarking's ultimate purpose is to support the business mission of profit generation.
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- Managing Organizational Change
Marilyn Edelson, David Herron, Cheryl Lamphire
Webinar presentation slides
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- Agile Approach to Process Improvement
Michael Harris and David Garmus
This webinar presentation by Michael Harris (President, David Consulting Group) and David Garmus will discuss how an agile approach to software process improvement (SPI) can be structured and why and how software process improvement projects can and must deliver recognizable value. Using examples from a current project, they will demonstrate that software process improvement projects, such as CMMI® implementations, can positively benefit by adopting an iterative "Agile" approach. Typically, most SPI projects are planned as waterfall projects using a sequential approach rather than an iterative approach. Implementing an SPI project in an organization that is following an agile implementation methodology can be faster and more productive than the same SPI project in an organization using the traditional waterfall model. To facilitate discussion of how an agile approach to software process improvement can be structured, SCRUM will be used as the example.
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- Fast Track your CMMI Adoption
Mike Harris, DCG & James Winder, MKS
In this presentation, Michael Harris, President of DCG shares the DCG approach to accelerated CMMI adoption, including the firm’s “Fast-Track” CMMI action planning approach. James Winder MKS ALM also illustrates how application lifecycle management can support accelerated CMMI adoption.
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- DCG ITIL Webinar - Determine Best Fit
Mike Harris, DCG
Linking IT to your business strategies provide you with a competitive edge. That is where the ITIL framework comes in. ITIL 3.0 Update.
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- How coaching helps IT Teams
David Herron & Marilyn Edelson
This presentation from the DCG webinar of the same name, outlines how team and executive coaching can help distributed teams align across geographic and cultural boundaries to improve their performance.
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- Outsourcing-Off Shore Audit of Distributed Develop
Michael Harris
This presentation will illustrate an approach to a process audit of a distributed development group (onshore and offshore) and to under the ideas to consider when establishing a Master Services Agreement for the outsourced part of an onshore development group. Finally learn how to identify unintended consequences of a capability maturity mismatch between onshore and offshore.
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- Paving the Road to a Software Measurement Program:
Janet Russac, CFPS, CSMS (Level 3), DCG
Presented at the IFPUG 2006 Conference in San Diego, CA, this presentation reviews the potential problems, pitfalls, obstacles, etc. experienced in implementing and sustaining measurement programs and discusses how to avoid or prevent those problems from the onset. In addition, an examination of best practices that have worked well in organizations and that can be used by others in also included.
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- Defining ITIL Key Performance Indicators
Diane Bloodworth & Tom Cagley
Implementing ITIL yields many benefits as a common language, service structure and methodology are applied to your IT processes. Adding key performance indicators to ITIL helps you quantitatively manage your ITIL processes at a high level.
To view this presentation in a recorded webinar, go to the NEWS/Webinar Archive section of the DCG website.
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- Extracting Real Value from Process Improvement
Tom Cagley
Presented at the 13th Annual International Software Conference on Quality, this presentation discusses the various process improvement and productivity models and how to extract value from whichever model you choose
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- Latest Industry Data Presentation IFPUG 2003
David Garmus
Understand the latest industry benchmark data available and how it affectes your software development activities. Presented at the IFPUG conference 2003.
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- Balanced Scorecard - The Answer is Clear!
Sheila Dennis
Presented at the International Software Measurement Conference in 2006, this presentation overviews the Balanced Scorecard approach, its benefits and how functional sizing supports scorecard effectivness for clear and objective reporting
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If you are interested in more free publications like these, let us know about your specific interest area by e-mailing us at info@davidconsultinggroup.com and we will get back to you right away!
If you are interested in more free publications like these, let us know about your specific interest area by e-mailing us at info@davidconsultinggroup.com and we will get back to you right away!
