September, 2009
SoftwareTech News:
(Carol Dekkers, Quality Plus Technologies)
Analogous approaches from other industries often provide illumination of key concepts to benefit software intensive systems projects. The latter are some of the most complex, monolithic, and costly of all project management challenges today, not only because of technology novelty but because of the sheer amount of focused customer and developer communication that must occur.
January, 2009
(Pekka Forselius, and Timo Käkölä, University of Jyväskylä)
There is relatively little research on software Project Estimation and Measurement Systems (PEMS). Commercial PEMS vary in functionality and effectiveness. Their intended users thus do not know what to expect from PEMS and how to evaluate them. This paper creates an information system design product theory for the class of PEMS that prescribes the meta-requirements, the meta-design, and applicable theories for all products within the class. Meta-requirements and the meta-design are derived from the project estimation and measurement literature, experiences obtained during more than ten years of empirical work in Finnish Software Measurement Association, and a commercially available PEMS.
November, 2008
22nd IPMA World Congress
(Carol Dekkers, Quality Plus Technologies, and Pekka Forselius)
ICT (Information and Communications Technology) projects are some of the most complex, monolithic, and costly of all project management challenges today. While project management has provided rigor and structure to such software intensive systems projects, project management alone is insufficient to bridge the gap between customers (who find it difficult to articulate their requirements to get the results that they need) and suppliers (who are the technical brains behind the project delivery). It is a weekly occurrence for industry journals to publish the latest ICT program failures that range from projects canceled after years and euros spent to projects that are years late and millions of euros over budget. Two radical approaches from different parts of the world were developed independently to take advantage of known best-practices available to the software industry – northernSCOPE™ from Finland, and southernSCOPE from Australia. Both concepts involve a multi-disciplinary approach (similar to the triathlon approach where multiple athletic skills are needed) to solving more than six out of the ten top reasons for project failure. This paper presents an analogous look at how the formal scope management concepts mirror triathlon athlete performance in training and racing – and how they can bring success to your next ICT project.
December, 2007
IT Week:
(Carol Dekkers, Quality Plus Technologies, and Pekka Forselius)
ICT (Information and Communications Technology) projects are some of the most complex, monolithic, and costly of all project management challenges today. While project management has provided rigor and structure to such software intensive systems projects, project management alone is insufficient to bridge the gap between customers (who find it difficult to articulate their requirements to get the results that they need) and suppliers (who are the technical brains behind the project delivery). It is a weekly occurrence for industry journals to publish the latest ICT program failures that range from projects canceled after years and euros spent to projects that are years late and millions of euros over budget. Two radical approaches from different parts of the world were developed independently to take advantage of known best-practices available to the software industry – northernSCOPE™ from Finland, and southernSCOPE from Australia. Both concepts involve a multi-disciplinary approach (similar to the triathlon approach where multiple athletic skills are needed) to solving more than six out of the ten top reasons for project failure. This paper presents an analogous look at how the formal scope management concepts mirror triathlon athlete performance in training and racing – and how they can bring success to your next ICT project.
