Improving Software Development Productivity: Effective Leadership and Quantitative Methods in Software Management

Preface xv About the Author xiii Chapter 1: Software Development Issues 1 1.1 Software Crisis 2 1.2 People Impact on Productivity 9 1.3 Agile Contributions to Development Productivity 13 1.4 Magic Bullets 15 1.5 Development Constraints 16 Chapter 2: The Effectiveness 17 2.2 Mechanics of Communication 19 2.3 Culture Issues 31 Chapter 3: Importance of Software Management 41 3.1 Historical Perspective 42 3.2 Hawthorne Effect 45 3.3 Theory X/Theory Y 47 3.4 Agile Software Development 50 3.5 More Real Productivity Improvers 51 Chapter 4: What We Learn from History 57 4.1 Pandora and the Magic Vase 58 4.2 Productivity Gains from Technology 59 4.3 CMMI 63 4.4 Maximum/Minimum Schedule Is Real 66 4.5 And So ... 68 Chapter 5: Software Development Teams 71 5.1 Software Development Teams 72 5.2 Team Examples 73 5.3 Team Positive Effects 86 5.4 Team Size 88 5.5 And Then ... 91 Chapter 6: Measuring Organization Capability 93 6.1 The Evolving Concept of Developer Capability 95 6.2 The Effectiveness Formula Redux 98 6.3 Organization Capability Rating 116 6.4 Basic Technology Constant 120 Chapter 7: Faultless Software Corporation Case Study 125 7.1 The Problem 125 7.2 Faultless Software, the Corporation 126 7.3 The Software Components 128 7.4 Faultless Software Capability Ratings 130 Chapter 8: Product Complexity 137 8.1 A Quantitative Complexity Value 138 8.2 Faultless Software Complexity Example 143 Chapter 9: Staffing Profiles 147 9.1 Effective Use of People 147 9.2 Brooks' Law in Action 154 9.3 A Touch of Reality 156 Chapter 10: Seer Software Model Introduction 159 10.1 Introduction 160 10.2 Software Equation 163 10.3 Schedule and Cost Estimates 169 Chapter 11: Development Environment 173 11.1 Experience Factors 174 11.2 Volatility Factors 182 11.3 Management Factors 183 Chapter 12: Product Characteristics 189 12.1 Product Characteristics Evaluation 190 12.2 Effective Technology Constant 200 12.3 Basic Technology Constant Projection 201 Chapter 13: Development Schedule and Cost

Randall W. Jensen, Ph.D., started his career working to improve software productivity at Hughes Aircraft Company's Space and Communications Group where he developed a pioneering computer model for estimating cost and schedule for any large project, measuring organization capability and quantitatively predicting the productivity impact of management decisions. In 1979, Jensen and Charles Tonies illuminated key software productivity attributes in their book, Software Engineering. Throughout his career Jensen continues his research on productivity leading to his improved computer-based estimating model, which is still used today.