Jens Heidrich

Linking Software Development and Business Strategy Through Measurement

The GQM+Strategies approach extends the goal/question/metric paradigm for measuring the success or failure of goals and strategies, adding enterprise-wide support for determining action on the basis of measurement results. An organization can thus integrate its measurement program across all levels.

GQM^+ Strategies -- Aligning Business Strategies with Software Measurement

GQM+Strategies is a measurement approach that builds on the well-tested GQM approach to planning and implementing software measurement. Although GQM has proven itself useful in a variety of industrial settings, one recognized weakness is the difficulty for GQM users to link software measurement goals to higher-level goals of the organization in which the software is being developed. This linkage is important, as it helps to justify software measurement efforts and allows measurement data to contribute to higher-level decisions. GQM+strategies provides mechanisms for explicitly linking software measurement goals, to higher-level goals for the software organization, and further to goals and strategies at the level of the entire business.

Development of a hybrid cost estimation model in an iterative manner

Cost estimation is a very crucial field for software developing companies. The acceptance of an estimation technique is highly dependent on estimation accuracy. Often, this accuracy is only determined after an initial application. Possible further steps for improving the underlying estimation model typically do not influence the decision on whether to discard the technique or deploy it. In addition, most estimation techniques do not explicitly support the evolution of the underlying estimation model in an iterative manner. This increases the risk of overlooking some important cost drivers or data inconsistencies. This paper presents an enhanced process for developing a CoBRA® cost estimation model by systematically including iterative analysis and feedback cycles, and its evaluation in a software development unit of Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd., Japan. During the model improvement cycles, estimation accuracy was improved from an initial 120% down to 14%. In addition, lessons learned with the iterative development approach are described.

CQML Scheme: A Classification Scheme for Comprehensive Quality Model Landscapes

Managing quality during the development, operation, and maintenance of software(-intensive) systems and services is a challenging task. Although many organizations need to define, control, measure, and improve various quality aspects of their development artifacts and processes, nearly no guidance is available on how to select, adapt, define, combine, use, and evolve quality models. Catalogs of models as well as selection and tailoring processes are widely missing. A first step towards better support for selecting and adapting quality models can be seen in a classification of existing quality models, especially with respect to their suitability for different purposes and contexts. This article presents so-called comprehensive quality model landscapes (CQMLs), which provide such a classification scheme and help to get an overview of existing models and their relationships. The article focuses on the description and justification of essential concepts needed to define quality models and landscapes. In addition, the article describes typical usage scenarios, illustrates the concept with examples, and sketches open questions and future work.

Aligning Organizations Through Measurement

39 V. Basili, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA; A. Trendowicz, Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering, Kaiserslautern, Germany; M. Kowalczyk, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany; J. Heidrich, Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering, Kaiserslautern, Germany; C. Seaman, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA; J. Münch, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; D. Rombach, Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering, Kaiserslautern, Germany

Aligning Software Projects with Business Objectives

Companies increasingly recognize that software and IT play a significant role for their current and future business strategies. Therefore, it is important to align IT/software-related strategies with the business goals across the organization. Currently, little experience exists regarding how to effectively create this missing business-IT link. For this purpose, the GQM+Strategies® approach was developed to support companies in aligning IT/software-related strategies with business goals through measurement. This paper focuses on facilitating the approach for aligning IT/software projects with an organizations higher-level goals. Lessons learned from applying the approach in the context of the Japanese Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA), specifically its Software Engineering Center (SEC), are presented. The transparent documentation of goals and strategies, and the collection of key performance indicators were helpful for effectively aligning the projects with overall organizational goals and strategies as well as for evaluating the degree of alignment and the risk of misalignment.

Exploiting Big Data's Benefits

Knowing about big datas potential for exploiting new business ideas is a key capability for staying successful in the market. Potential analysis provides a systematic way to identify and close the gap between big datas possible benefits and the ability to turn that data into business value.

GQM+Strategies in a Nutshell

This chapter introduces the GQM+Strategies approach for aligning organizational goals and strategies through measurement. We first explain the basic idea of combining alignment and measurement within GQM+Strategies, which provides an integrated method for explicitly defining organizational goals and controls for the execution of those plans. Next, we describe in detail the core components of GQM+Strategies. This includes a specification of the GQM+Strategies model as well as the description of the GQM+Strategies process for defining, controlling, and continuously improving organizational goals and strategies.

Phase 2: Define Goals, Strategies, and Measurement

In this phase, we derive the GQM+Strategies Grid. In particular, we specify and align organizational goals and strategies within the GQM+Strategies scope, and we quantify goals using GQM graphs. Table 5.1 summarizes the objectives, inputs, basic activities, and outcomes of this phase. In the following sections, we will describe the individual activities of this phase in more detail.

Software Effort Estimation and Risk Management

Every software business has to be able to budget and plan its software development projects realistically. Since software projects are usually fraught with uncertainty, they inherently involve planning risks right from the start. Consequently, it is important to manage cost-related risks in order to monitor them and implement adequate contingency plans when a crisis occurs. Since not all projects are equal, it is important to identify the specific factors (cost drivers) that have a positive or negative influence on productivity. Thus, the use of appropriate cost estimation approaches does not only contribute to accurate project planning and successful risk management, but also to improved software processes and overall organization maturity.