Oct 25, 2011 rex black and capers jones continue their talk on the economics of software quality. Data were obtained from 4200 projects between 1950 and 1990. Companies use both the data and our predictive tool, software risk master srm. Based on the authors empirical observations of nearly 7000 software projects derived from close to 600 companies and government agencies, software quality. Capers jones software intelligence for digital leaders. It contains software quality data that you can use to build a business case to improve the quality of your software, and decide upon processes and techniques that can help to implement the. Sizing up software 3 managers need to know the actual mechanics of functionpoint counting, but all of them should understand the assessments of productivity and quality now being. Global analysis of productivity and quality capers jones isbn. The economics of software quality capers jones, olivier. Rather than provide simplistic manual formulas that lack the accuracy needed for contracts and serious business purposes, he explores in great detail the multifaceted variables that cause estimates to be higher or lower than average.
Best results are obtained when systematically approaching software reuse. Capers jones, vp and chief technology officer namcook analytics llc abstract the cost of finding and fixing bugs or defects is the largest single expense element in the history of software. It seems a little contradictory to talk of software quality being defined by conformance to requirements when one of the biggest problems of software development is the difficulty in specifying clear requirements. Software quality metrics project performance international. Capers jones author of the economics of software quality. He was also a manager and software researcher at ibm in california where he designed ibms first two software cost estimating tools in 1973 and 1974 in collaboration with dr. Capers jones istqb international software testing excellence. Mar 20, 20 historical data is a key resource for judging the effectiveness of software process improvement methods and also for calibrating software estimation accuracy. Software defect origins and removal methods capers jones. Economics of software quality an interview with capers. Annual software maintenance jones in estimating software costs. Function point metrics do measure economic productivity using both work hours per function point and function points per month. Capers jones is founder and chief scientist of software productivity research llc.
Software projects that aim initially at achieving the highest possible levels of quality and reliability tend to have the best schedule adherence records, the highest productivity, and even the best marketplace success. Capers jones is a leading author and speaker on software productivity and measurement as well as the acknowledged expert on the economic impact of the year 2000 software problem. Spr was founded in 1984 and is a leading company in the topics of software quality and cost estimation, software assessments, and software benchmarking. Jones was awarded a lifetime membership in the international function point users group ifpug, and is is a distinguished advisor to the consortium of it software quality. They also are useful for normalizing quality data such as defects per function point. Only means the architects implement quality is via it projects. Another way of looking at sixsigma in a software context would be to achieve a defectremoval efficiency level of about 99. He was the founder and chairman of software productivity research spr, where he retains the title of chief scientist emeritus.
Function point metricswere invented by ibm circa 1975 and placed in the public domain circa 1978. To become a true engineering discipline, software engineering needs better quality control, better quality measures, and better economic analysis than current norms. Capers jones presents an overview of software benchmarks. Capers jones data is also widely cited in software litigation in cases where quality, productivity, and schedules are part of the proceedings. The economics of software quality is a comprehensive, datarich study of challenges of quality software across the many application domains. Software delivered defects average software maintenance assignment scopes 3,500 function points 12. Watch this podcast to learn about some surprising and motivating facts about software quality and how to. Capers jones is an american specialist in software engineering methodologies, and is often associated with the function point model of cost estimation. This webinar presentation by capers jones discusses the need for new kinds of benchmarks in areas such as data quality, total cost of ownership. The economics of software quality, capers jones, olivier bonsignour and jitendra subramanyam, addisonwesley longman, 2011.
This rule of thumb provides a reasonableness check of the quality assurance effort, considering the total project effort. View capers jones profile on linkedin, the worlds largest professional community. For companies that know how to achieve it, high quality software is faster and cheaper than low. This is an international consultancy dealing with software metrics, software measurement, software quality. Formerly a senior researcher at ibms santa teresa software laboratory and assistant director of applied technology at the itt programming technology. Structural software quality software that exhibits a robust architecture and can operate in a multitier environment without failures or degraded performance. Estimating software costs by capers jones overdrive. Cbd and spl are the two most used approaches to software reuse. What software reuse benefits have been transferred to the. Capers jones has also worked as an expert witness in 15 lawsuits involving breach of contract and software taxation issues. They are useful quality metrics developed by ibm circa 1973 and widely used by technology companies as well as by banks, insurance companies, and other organizations with large software staffs. Unfortunately software quality assurance groups are often understaffed for the work at hand, and also undercapitalized and under equipped. There are three very hazardous metrics that all distort quality economics and under state the true value of software quality. Capers jones is currently vice president and chief technology officer of namcook analytics llc.
It is an essential read for software quality professionals who wish to better understand the challenges they face and the cost and effectiveness of potential solutions. Capers jones is an american specialist in software engineering methodologies, and is often. He was the founder and chairman of software productivity research spr. Nov 05, 2008 capers jones 2008 software quality survey as strange as it may sound capers jones is my hero. In the economics of software quality, leading software quality experts capers jones and olivier bonsignour show how to systematically measure the economic impact of quality and how to use this information to deliver far more business value. He is a frequent speaker at software engineering conferences.
Cancelled projects are about 35% in the 10,000 function point size range and about 5% of software outsource agreements end up in court in litigation. Capers jones is vice president and chief technology officer at namcook analytics llc, which builds advanced risk and estimations tools. Aesthetic software quality software with elegant and easy to use commands and interfaces, attractive screens, and well formatted. The rule of one technical staff member per 150 function points obviously varies widely based on the skill and experience of the team and the size and complexity of the application. He is the author of estimating software costs, second edition and applied software measurement. He was born in st petersburg, florida, united states and graduated from the university of florida. Capers jones, vice president and cto, namcook analytics llc. Cmmi is way to measure of it organization in designing quality into software products and services. Poor software quality has become one of the most expensive topics in human history.
Jones, caper, bonsignour, olivier, and jitendra subramanyam, jitendra, the economics of software quality. Historical data is a key resource for judging the effectiveness of software process improvement methods and also for calibrating software estimation accuracy. Capers jones shows how you can measure productivity and quality, and looks at agile practices that have proved to be beneficial for teams. This company designs leadingedge risk, cost, and quality estimation and measurement tools. Unfortunately the software industry lacks both circa 2017. Chapter 3, united states averages for software productivity and quality, is a largely selfcontained, functionpointbased profile of us software development and maintenance. Capers jones vp and chief technology officer namcook.
We do studies before projects start that show risks. Rather, jones dissects the primary productivity and quality factors many of which are not practices to show how they affect software development. Software defect potentials average 96% for all projects 10. Caper jones rule of thumb software bug software free 30. Software delivered defects average 3,500 function points 12. The software industry is also troubled by very poor quality and very high cost structures due to the expense of software development, maintenance, and endemic problems with poor quality control.
Presents a systematic mapping on reuse benefits in realworld settings. We do studies before projects start that show risks, schedules, staffing, effort, costs, and quality. Analysis and guidelines for success examines the effects of about 75 major software quality factors on the quality level of actual software applications. He has worked in the software industry for over thirty years, during which time he authored 17 books dealing with software.
Interview with capers jones on measuring for agile adoption. A survey of the state of the art capers jones president. Software is the main operating tool of business and government in 2016. How to measure maturity of software organization in cost. Evaluating agile and scrum with other software methodologies. Software with elegant and easy to use commands and interfaces, attractive screens, and well formatted outputs. High quality software is faster and cheaper to build and maintain than low quality software, from initial development all the way through total cost of ownership. Capers jones is the foremost leader in the software industry today for software metrics. A synergistic combination of defect prevention, pretest defect removal, and formal testing by certified personnel can top 99% in defect removal efficiency while simultaneously lowering costs and shortening schedules. Defining software quality this way also implies a concious planned development from formal specifications. Even worse, many attempts to measure quality use metrics that violate standard economic assumptions, and conceal or distort the economic value of high quality. Capers jones is the author of the economics of software quality 3.
Evm is in use for defense software contracts, but the omission of quality is a serious problem since finding and fixing bugs is the most expensive single cost driver for software. It is an essential read for software quality professionals who wish to better understand the challenges they face. If the earnedvalue approach included quality topics, it would be very useful for contracts and software outsource agreements. The economics of software quality is a comprehensive, datarich study. Joness book differs from others with a similar title by not presenting a litany of standard software engineering practices that, if applied, are guaranteed to boost productivity and quality. Software that exhibits a robust architecture and can operate in a multitier environment without failures or degraded performance.
Buy the economics of software quality book online at low. Furthermore i would advice to simply define software quality as software meeting requirements and would focus the discussion on structuring and defining these requirements, and the process of automated validation. Accurate measurements of software development and maintenance costs and accurate measurement of quality would be extremely valuable. Jun 12, 2011 software quality and software costs by capers jones an occupation where failures and disasters are the top cost drivers is not a true engineering discipline. Istqb international software testing qualifications board, award for software quality, a notforprofit association legally registered in belgium composed of 47. Xbosoft runs through the top 10 agile metrics revealing the most fundamental data points agile methodology requires to work effectively, and will put you on the highly targeted path to successful implementation of your agile processes. This rule of thumb is based on industry experience and on capers jones analysis of the distribution of effort experienced on over 0 american software projects, as cited in applied software measurement. One of the software engineering fields most influential thought leaders, his books include patterns of software systems failure and success. During his tenure capers jones designed three proprietary software cost and quality estimation tools for itt between 1979 and 1983. Namcook analytics llc capers jones is currently vice president and chief technology officer of namcook analytics llc. Software quality and software costs by capers jones.
Software quality is a topic of importance throughout the world. Jones is a distinguished advisor to the consortium for it software quality cisq. Jul 01, 2011 the book the economics of software quality provides solutions to quantify software quality, helping you to manage software development and maintenance. Capers jones has been in the software industry for over 30 years, including founding companies like software productivity research llc spr and capers jones. Handle configuration change, research, quality control, and documentation costs capers jones work offers a unique contribution to the understanding of the economics of software production. Increased quality and increased productivity are the two most reported benefits. It provides deep insights into why our advances in computing are not matched with corresponding improvements in the software that drives it. Software historical measurement problems software needs a careful analysis of economic factors and much better quality control than is normally accomplished. Improving software quality is a key topic for all industries. In this twopart interview, rex black talks with capers jones about his book the economics of software quality, in which leading software. Capers jones is a renowned author, consultant, and speaker. In order to achieve these goals, software also needs accurate and reliable metrics and good measurement practices. Software defect potentials average software defect removal efficiency averages 96% for all projects 10. Capers thrid edition of applied software measurement continues the.
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