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Enduring Ideas in the Realm of Software

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Impact of People on Cost and Effort

The Impact of People on Cost and Effort

Just how much can people factors influence your project cost and effort?  24.6 percent!  In other words, the least experienced team (the bottom 15 percent) can require up to 24.6 times as much effort to complete a project as the most experienced team (top 10 percent.) In Professional Software Development: Shorter Schedules, Higher Quality Products, …

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Adding People to Late Projects Makes Them Later

Adding people to late projects makes them later.  This can be counter-intuitive.  In Requirements-Led Project Management: Discovering David’s Slingshot, by Suzanne Robertson and James Robertson explain how adding people to late projects makes them later. The Least Knowledgeable People Prevent the Most Knowledgeable People from WorkingAccording to Suzanne and James, adding people to a late …

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Mission Impossible

How do you know when you’re signing up for Mission Impossible?  If your project has a short time frame to design, build, and deliver,  and there’s high risk around the requirements and technology, there’s a good chance your project scenario is Mission Impossible. In Scenarios, Stories, Use Cases: Through the Systems Development Life-Cycle, Ian F. …

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Evolutionary, Incremental, and High-Risk

Evolutionary, Incremental, and High-Risk are software process models for systems engineering ‘in the large’.  In the Evolutionary model, the complete cycle of activities is repeated for each version.  In the Incremental model,  increments are individually designed, tested, and delivered at successive points in time.  In the high-risk model, the project is divided into phases and …

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