Lean Forecasting In Software Projects

Quando se desenvolve um projeto de software, é reconhecível que estimativas precisas do esforço envolvido no desenvolvimento são uma parte importante na gestão bem-sucedida do projeto. Embora este processo seja tão importante, desenvolvedores e especialistas não conseguem normalmente estimar precisamente o esforço, tempo e custo que o projeto a ser desenvolvido terá. Isto é inerente à incerteza subjacente à sua atividade. Depois da primeira estimativa do esforço ser feita, o projeto pode, com alguma probabilidade, necessitar de se adaptar a circunstâncias em evolução, o que pode levar a mudanças nas características do projeto, e subsequentemente levar a que os gestores ponham mais pressão nos desenvolvedores para que sejam respeitados os prazos de entrega. No fim, o desenvolvimento do projeto irá, provavelmente, atrasar-se e estes atrasos não só afetam a equipa de desenvolvimento, mas também outras partes da empresa, como os departamentos responsaveis pelos funcionários e pelo marketing. Isto pode, em algumas situações, levar a que a empresa perca tempo e muitas vezes a confiança do cliente interessado no projeto. Mesmo que a estimativa seja precisa o suficiente para que as datas de entrega sejam respeitadas, métodos que dependem das estimativas de humanos consomem, normalmente, muito tempo, o que pode representar um problema quando equipas gastam tempo precioso a fazer estimativas. De maneira a mitigar estes problemas, iremos procurar identificar as motivações e forças em jogo no processo de fazer estimativas precisas e determinar que métodos de previsão alcançam os resultados mais precisos com alguma generalização, de modo a satisfazer a variedade de projetos de software existente. Vamos nos focar nos métodos de previsão devido à sua automaticidade, que irá ajudar a reduzir o tempo que as equipas gastam em estimações, mantendo a precisão dos resultados. Este método deve, também, ser fácil de perceber, implementar e usar, logo o número de dados que deve receber e a sua dificuldade de obter deve ser reduzida. As previsões do método devem conter um certo nível de ambiguidade, de modo a representar melhor o problema. Para a fase de validação do método, uma ferramenta baseada no método irá ser desenvolvida, testada em termos de eficácia e precisão contra outros métodos existentes, e irá ser integrada com ferramentas de gest�\xA3o de desenvolvimento de software, de modo a validar a sua usabilidade em projetos reais durante a fase de desenvolvimento destes. Assim, o objetivo principal desta dissertação é o de ajudar a reduzir o tempo perdido em estimações, mantendo ou até melhorando a precisão das previsões feitas e mantendo a facilidade de percepção e de uso para os desenvolvedores e equipas que utilizem este método.When developing a software project, it's recognisable that accurate estimations of development effort play an important part in the successful management of the project. Although this process is so important, developers and experts can't usually estimate accurately the effort, time and cost of a project to be developed. This is inherit to the uncertainty that underlies their activity. After the first estimation of the effort, the project may, with some likelihood, need to adapt to evolving circumstances, which may lead to changes in its scope, and consequently lead to managers putting pressure in the developers to respect delivery dates. In the end, the project's development will, probably, get delayed and this delays not only affect the development team but also other parts of the company, such as staffing or marketing. This could, in some situations, lead to the company losing time and in many times the trust of the stakeholder. Even if the estimate is accurate enough so that delivery dates are respected, methods that relay on Human estimation are, often, time consuming, what can represent a problem when teams waste precious time in making estimations. In order to mitigate this problems, we will seek to identify the motivations and forces playing in a accurate estimate and determine which forecast method could provide the bet- ter accuracy with some generalization, in order to satisfy the existing variety of software projects. We will focus on forecast methods because of their automatability, that will help reduce the time teams waste on estimations, still delivering accurate results. This method must also be easy to understand, implement and use, so the number of inputs required and the difficulty to collect this inputs should be low. The output of the method should contain a certain level of uncertainty, in order to better represent the problem. In order to validate this method, a tool based on it will be developed, tested in terms of effective- ness and accuracy against other existing methods, and it will be integrated with software development management tools to validate it's ability to be used in real projects during their development phase. Following this lines, the main goal of this dissertation is to help reduce the time wasted in estimations, while maintaining or even increase the accuracy of the prediction made and maintaining the understandability and usability easy for the teams and developers using it

Implementing metrics for process improvement

There is increasing interest in the use of metrics to control the software development process, to demonstrate productivity and value, and to identify areas for process improvement. Research work completed to date is based on the implementation of metrics in a 'standard' software development environment, and follows either a top-down or bottom-up approach. With the advent of further European unity, many companies are producing localised products, ie products which are translated and adapted to suit each European country. Metrics systems need to be customised to the processes and environment of each company. This thesis describes a 12-step process for metrics implementation, using an optimum approach which is a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches, with a set of applicable metrics, covering the software development process, which can be adapted for any development environment. For the case study, a software localisation company, the suggested implementation process is followed, and relevant measures are adapted to suit the different environment, with a particular emphasis on quality metrics. This thesis also demonstrates that a metrics system is itself subject to continuous improvement, and rather than being a once-off implementation, it is an evolutionary process, changing as the software development process comes under control

JTIT

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Technology 2001: The Second National Technology Transfer Conference and Exposition, volume 2

Proceedings of the workshop are presented. The mission of the conference was to transfer advanced technologies developed by the Federal government, its contractors, and other high-tech organizations to U.S. industries for their use in developing new or improved products and processes. Volume two presents papers on the following topics: materials science, robotics, test and measurement, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, electronics, and software engineering

Volume II Acquisition Research Creating Synergy for Informed Change, Thursday 19th Annual Acquisition Research Proceedings

ProceedingsApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Combining SOA and BPM Technologies for Cross-System Process Automation

This paper summarizes the results of an industry case study that introduced a cross-system business process automation solution based on a combination of SOA and BPM standard technologies (i.e., BPMN, BPEL, WSDL). Besides discussing major weaknesses of the existing, custom-built, solution and comparing them against experiences with the developed prototype, the paper presents a course of action for transforming the current solution into the proposed solution. This includes a general approach, consisting of four distinct steps, as well as specific action items that are to be performed for every step. The discussion also covers language and tool support and challenges arising from the transformation

Social work with airports passengers

Social work at the airport is in to offer to passengers social services. The main methodological position is that people are under stress, which characterized by a particular set of characteristics in appearance and behavior. In such circumstances passenger attracts in his actions some attention. Only person whom he trusts can help him with the documents or psychologically