Why DCG?
The Advisory Board
The David Consulting Group was founded in 1994 by two world-class leaders in the field of Function Point Counting and Software Metrics, David Garmus and David Herron. We are very fortunate to have “the Davids” continue to actively participate in the company building and delivering value for our Customers as well as mentoring our staff.
Together with the President (and Owner) of DCG, Michael D. Harris, David Herron and David Garmus form the DCG Advisory Board which provides a forum in which industry trends are monitored and adjustments to the company’s strategy and services considered.
Michael D. Harris, President and Owner
m.harris@davidconsultinggroup.com
Mr. Harris brings nearly 25 years of broad management experience in the computing field including periods in R&D, development, production, business and academia. The past ten years have been spent in the financial services technology area.
Before purchasing DCG, Mr. Harris was a key executive at Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE: FIS). At FIS Mr. Harris led Channels Development and Operations Services within the Leveraged Products Development Group. In these roles he was responsible for rationalizing a disparate range of software assets into a coherent set of front-end solutions for global tier 1 banks, as well as building the teams that provided Group-wide centralized control and management services. These services included software configuration management, project management, tools and environments management, documentation, testing and quality assurance.
Prior to FIS, Mr. Harris was President of the Banking Solutions Division at Sanchez Computer Associates (NASDAQ: SCAI). At Sanchez he led the first introduction of application version management and achieved significant quality and delivery improvements culminating in the achievement of CMM® Level 3 in only 15 months.
Mr Harris was a Senior Vice President and Head of the Global Chip Card Group at MasterCard International. In this role, he maintained MasterCard’s leadership position in chip technology was at the forefront of driving through industry standards as a founding director, of EMVCo. (the global standards body for chip card standards in the payments industry).
Mr. Harris earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electronic engineering from the University of Southampton, England, and a Master of Science degree in computer-aided engineering from Coventry University, England. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (UK) and a Member of the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (USA).
David Garmus, Member of the Advisory Board
d.garmus@davidconsultinggroup.com
Mr. Garmus is an acknowledged world-authority in the sizing, measurement and estimation of software application development and maintenance. He has been at the forefront of the industry for 30 years and is frequently called upon as an expert court witness in U.S. Federal Courts on the sizing and valuation of software.
He has achieved significant improvements in software productivity and quality for countless organization in the U.S. and internationally. Mr. Garmus has made major contributions to the advancement of the software industry and has served in leadership positions in many of the industry’s professional bodies. These include, President of the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG), Editor of the Counting Practices Manual, Member of IFPUG Counting Practices Committee, Chair of the IFPUG Certification Committee and Chair of the IFPUG New Environments Committee. With David Herron, he was also responsible for developing the Functional Metrics Training Course, the first such course certified by IFPUG.
Before forming DCG, Mr. Garmus served as the Development Manager at the CACI Design and Development Center in Mechanicsburg, PA. Concurrently, he taught college-level courses in computer programming, system development, information systems management, data processing, accounting, finance and banking.
Mr Garmus is a frequently published author of articles and books on software sizing, estimation and measurement. Some of his titles include, Measuring The Software Process: A Practical Guide To Functional Measurements, Prentice Hall, 1996 with David Herron, Function Point Analysis; Measurement Practices for Successful Software Projects, Addison-Wesley, 2001 with David Herron, “Estimating Software Earlier and More Accurately,” CrossTalk, The Journal of Defense Software Engineering, June 2002 with David Herron and “An Introduction to Function Point Counting,” Projects & Profits, ICFAI University Press, June 2005.
Mr. Garmus received a BS at University of California at Los Angeles in1962 and his MBA at Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration in1969.
David Herron, Member of the Advisory Board
d.herron@davidconsultinggroup.com
Mr. Herron brings over 25 years of experience in Functional Measurement and Software Process Improvement. An authority on software development, he is regularly sought after by Fortune 1000 companies where he provides guidance on the use of metrics to monitor the impact of IT on the business, on the advancement of IT organizations to higher levels on the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model and on the governance of offshore development.
Mr. Herron is a noted lecturer on functional measures, software process improvement and applications outsourcing, frequently addressing audiences in the United States and Europe.
Before forming DCG Mr. Herron was Vice President for Consulting Services at Software Productivity Research, Burlington, MA.
Mr. Herron is an active participant in industry professional bodies and is member of the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG), the past chair of the Management Reporting Committee and serves on the IT Performance Committee. He is also a member of the American Society for Quality Control and the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute. Mr. Herron is a Senior Consultant for the Cutter Consortium.
Mr. Herron is a frequently published author of articles and books on software sizing, estimation and measurement. His publications include, “Functional Ratio Estimating,” a Software Productivity Research White Paper, Measuring the Software Process: A Practical Guide To Functional Measurements, Prentice Hall, 1996 with David Garmus, “Using Functional Metrics to Effectively Govern Outsourced Applications,” Cutter Consortium, March 2000, “Establishing Effective Service Levels,” Cutter Consortium, May 2000, “Application Maintenance Outsourcing,” Cutter Consortium, June 2000, Function Point Analysis; Measurement Practices for Successful Software Projects, Addison-Wesley, Nov 2000, with David Garmus, “Estimating Software Earlier and More Accurately,” CrossTalk, The Journal of Defense Software Engineering, June 2002 with David Garmus.
Mr Herron earned his Liberal Art degree at Union College in 1969 and a, Certificate in High-Technology Management, Northeastern University in 1987.