Project Size and Software Maintenance Productivity: Empirical Evidence on Economies of Scale in Software Maintenance

Although appropriate sizing of software projects is a concern in software development, Information Systems managers generally do not consider maintenance project size as a potentid influence on software maintenance productivity. This view ignores potential efficiency gains which may arise from proactive renovationstrategiessuchasbatchingsimilarmaintenancerequestsintolargerprojects. Inthisstudy,we explore the relationship between project size and productivity for software rmintenance projects at a major national mass merchandising retailer. Using a non-parametric methodology called Da& Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for estimating the functional relationship between maintenance inputs and outputs, we determine the most productive scale size for a set of maintenance projects at this organization. In addition, we also employ DEA-based heuristics to test for the existence of returns to scale for the projects. Our results indicate the presence of significant scale economies in these software maintenance projects. The most productive scale size is larger than 90% of the projects included in our sample. These results imply that there may be potential to increase productivity in software maintenance at this organization by grouping smaller modification projects into larger planned releases

Computer time-sharing (T-S) an engineering tool for the engineering applications of the small company

The objectives of this investigation were to illustrate the capabilities of the time-sharing (T-S) industry, identify the means by which the small sized company, with a need to solve engineering problems, can best be served through T-S, and to present T-S to these potential users. Investigation was made of distinctive T-S services to formulate a composite of the T-S industry. Examples of three distinctive T-S services were used within this composite to exemplify the variations of services within the industry. The methods a small company could use to utilize computer services were identified emphasizing T-S as the method best suited for small engineering applications. Lastly, examination was made of the considerations that require complete evaluation prior to subscribing to a T-S service. It was determined from this investigation that there are great variations in both capabilities and services offered by different T-S companies. Both the selection of the T-S company and method of utilizing the company\u27s service depends on the needs and objectives of the user --Abstract, page ii

Data manager looks at the development of the Colorado Water Data Bank, A

CEP73-74RAL-NM22.Colorado Water Data Bank project, Technical report 73-06.Paper presented at "Symposium on the Management of Data Elements in Information Processing," National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, Maryland, January 24, 1974

Special Libraries, December 1966

Volume 57, Issue 10https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1966/1009/thumbnail.jp

Auditing & EDP

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_guides/1018/thumbnail.jp