Archive for the ‘Computers’ Category
September 20th, 2008 | 
Author: 
Shoppers compare prices and look for discounts before finalizing any purchase. It is always a matter of getting the best deal, the best fit, and, of course, the best price. Software shoppers should take this cue and compare CRM software systems before anything else. If you are in the market for CRM software, take a look before making that dive.
Different Business Needs
Software that keeps track of business transactions can make the job easier. However, you have to compare CRM software systems to make sure you are getting the right one tailor-fitted to your needs. If you own a shoe store, you need to keep tabs of the following: number of shoes sold for different categories and styles, peak and slow periods, number of staff, bills due and payables collected, and total amounts due to your business.
CRM software that is applicable to your specifications is available, but you have to compare CRM software systems before making a final choice. The software does not come cheap, and that’s enough reason to take that extra precaution. Be reminded that software that does well for a bookstore or shoe store will not be suitable for a big processing plant.
Getting Automated
The variety and the bulk of information required will vary from one business to another. Work done manually and managing sales process and sales data, can be cut in half with the appropriate software. Buyers must compare software systems to check if they are better off with sophisticated or simple application.
To avoid the hassle and post purchase problems, get the assistance of an e-clearing house to eliminate all the attendant worries. The e-clearing house can match your needs with the qualified supplier. All you have to do is fill up a questionnaire stating your requirements. You can also request for affordable software considering your medium-sized enterprise. Your requirements will be matched with suppliers offering the right CRM software.
The suppliers will submit quotes, and you can make your informed decision with the help of the e-clearing house equipped with the experience on different software systems. Coursing your purchase through an e-clearing house hastens your search for the CRM software, reducing cost, stress, time, and effort.
You don’t have to compare software systems every now and then when your company needs the technology at the soonest possible time and within budget. The e-clearing house will take care of this problem. It will provide information, tips, and advice in selecting the software for different business categories.
What Do You Expect From A CRM Software?
There are varied CRM software solutions and if budget is no consequence, you can get an entire package. But if this is not the case, you have to settle for top priority needs like live chat options with customers and online customer assistance, or tracking and updating information on customer spending behavior to be able to tap opportunities to offer new services/products.
You don’t need software that has several programs. This will be costly and another waste of company funds if not all programs can be used for the business. Be very specific when you look for the correct software.
Re-entering all that data to suit the software is expensive and a waste of time. Compare CRM software systems to find which one can assure the smooth transition of your current programs to the software function.
Expect the seller to provide the training for all key users of the system in your company. You might also want the provider to give you an in-house consultant until all of you have fully grasped how the system works. But all of this begins with the responsibility of making good when you compare CRM software systems.
By: Nahshon Wingard
About the Author:
Different Business Needs
Software that keeps track of business transactions can make the job easier. However, you have to compare CRM software systems to make sure you are getting the right one tailor-fitted to your needs. If you own a shoe store, you need to keep tabs of the following: number of shoes sold for different categories and styles, peak and slow periods, number of staff, bills due and payables collected, and total amounts due to your business.
CRM software that is applicable to your specifications is available, but you have to compare CRM software systems before making a final choice. The software does not come cheap, and that’s enough reason to take that extra precaution. Be reminded that software that does well for a bookstore or shoe store will not be suitable for a big processing plant.
Getting Automated
The variety and the bulk of information required will vary from one business to another. Work done manually and managing sales process and sales data, can be cut in half with the appropriate software. Buyers must compare software systems to check if they are better off with sophisticated or simple application.
To avoid the hassle and post purchase problems, get the assistance of an e-clearing house to eliminate all the attendant worries. The e-clearing house can match your needs with the qualified supplier. All you have to do is fill up a questionnaire stating your requirements. You can also request for affordable software considering your medium-sized enterprise. Your requirements will be matched with suppliers offering the right CRM software.
The suppliers will submit quotes, and you can make your informed decision with the help of the e-clearing house equipped with the experience on different software systems. Coursing your purchase through an e-clearing house hastens your search for the CRM software, reducing cost, stress, time, and effort.
You don’t have to compare software systems every now and then when your company needs the technology at the soonest possible time and within budget. The e-clearing house will take care of this problem. It will provide information, tips, and advice in selecting the software for different business categories.
What Do You Expect From A CRM Software?
There are varied CRM software solutions and if budget is no consequence, you can get an entire package. But if this is not the case, you have to settle for top priority needs like live chat options with customers and online customer assistance, or tracking and updating information on customer spending behavior to be able to tap opportunities to offer new services/products.
You don’t need software that has several programs. This will be costly and another waste of company funds if not all programs can be used for the business. Be very specific when you look for the correct software.
Re-entering all that data to suit the software is expensive and a waste of time. Compare CRM software systems to find which one can assure the smooth transition of your current programs to the software function.
Expect the seller to provide the training for all key users of the system in your company. You might also want the provider to give you an in-house consultant until all of you have fully grasped how the system works. But all of this begins with the responsibility of making good when you compare CRM software systems.
By: Nahshon Wingard
About the Author:
Before you take the plunge, compare CRM software systems and customer relationship management software after you’ve brushed up on the current CRM definition. Visit www.CRM-Software-Guide.com today for more information.
Bradford Derizzio
Posted in Computers | 
Tags: Affordable Software, Best Fit, Business Transactions, Clearing House, Crm Software, Cue, Final Choice, Hassle, Managing Sales, Medium Sized Enterprise, Payables, Precaution, Price Software, Questionnaire, Shoe Store, Slow Periods, Software Buyers, Software Shoppers, Software Systems, Styles Peak | 
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This holiday season, treat the wine enthusiasts in your life with a special gift. Whether your budget is small or large, there is a unique gift to encourage their passions.
Recently, wine chillers have become readily available at grocery stores, allowing you to chill a bottle of wine while you shop. Now, you can have that technology at your fingertips with the Single Bottle Wine Chiller from Napa Style. It can chill or warm your bottle (with ten temperature settings) in just a few minutes. $98
Wine Enthusiast carries decorative 30-gallon American Oak barrels that are a fun addition to any home or cellar. The 29-inch high, 30-pound barrel has been charred to perfection, and can stand alone, or act as a base for any table. $329
For a more creative use of a wine barrel, consider the Vintage Oak Barrel Wine Bistro Table also from Wine Enthusiast. A retired barrel has been transformed into a cabinet for storing wine or glassware – anything you desire. A pine table stands atop the barrel, perfect for relaxing or dining. Two matching stools are included, crafted from actual oak casks reinforced with hand-forged iron braces. $945
The EuroCave Digital Comfort 260 is one of the most advanced wine cellars on the market. It can store over 200 wine bottles and offers precise temperature control with easy-to-use digital controls. Its slim modern design and black cabinet finish will compliment any room, and the EuroCave is virtually silent. Each unit is individually hand-crafted in thirty-step process to last through the years. $2,895
A true enthusiast might enjoy a WinePod Complete Personal Winery System. This revolutionary system brings the ability to create custom wines directly into your home. From grapes, to oak barrel, to bottling supplies, it includes all the accessories needed to make up to four cases of wine. No experience is required because the WineCoach software will walk you through the process. The system will manage fermentation temperature, sugar levels, and even presses the must. Everything is communicated wirelessly to your PC, and the system will connect to the WinePod global community. $6,350
A classic hobby, wine cellar storage is a comprehensive passion. eSommelier is a complete hardware and wine software system that allows wine lovers to easily manage their collections. Consisting of a touch screen computer, bar code scanner, bar code printer and instruction manual, it installs in minutes. A serious wine collector needs to know the details of his home wine cellars by producer, vintage, variety drink-by date, and the value of his collection. Most importantly, he needs to be able to find each bottle instantly. eSommelier’s cellar inventory system provides all these features and more. Even for those not computer-inclined, the system is easy to use allowing one to manage collections from 100 to over a thousand. $8,000
Chill it, make it, or manage it – no matter your budget there is a unique gift out there for the wine lover on your list.
By: Nicholas.Adams
About the Author:
Recently, wine chillers have become readily available at grocery stores, allowing you to chill a bottle of wine while you shop. Now, you can have that technology at your fingertips with the Single Bottle Wine Chiller from Napa Style. It can chill or warm your bottle (with ten temperature settings) in just a few minutes. $98
Wine Enthusiast carries decorative 30-gallon American Oak barrels that are a fun addition to any home or cellar. The 29-inch high, 30-pound barrel has been charred to perfection, and can stand alone, or act as a base for any table. $329
For a more creative use of a wine barrel, consider the Vintage Oak Barrel Wine Bistro Table also from Wine Enthusiast. A retired barrel has been transformed into a cabinet for storing wine or glassware – anything you desire. A pine table stands atop the barrel, perfect for relaxing or dining. Two matching stools are included, crafted from actual oak casks reinforced with hand-forged iron braces. $945
The EuroCave Digital Comfort 260 is one of the most advanced wine cellars on the market. It can store over 200 wine bottles and offers precise temperature control with easy-to-use digital controls. Its slim modern design and black cabinet finish will compliment any room, and the EuroCave is virtually silent. Each unit is individually hand-crafted in thirty-step process to last through the years. $2,895
A true enthusiast might enjoy a WinePod Complete Personal Winery System. This revolutionary system brings the ability to create custom wines directly into your home. From grapes, to oak barrel, to bottling supplies, it includes all the accessories needed to make up to four cases of wine. No experience is required because the WineCoach software will walk you through the process. The system will manage fermentation temperature, sugar levels, and even presses the must. Everything is communicated wirelessly to your PC, and the system will connect to the WinePod global community. $6,350
A classic hobby, wine cellar storage is a comprehensive passion. eSommelier is a complete hardware and wine software system that allows wine lovers to easily manage their collections. Consisting of a touch screen computer, bar code scanner, bar code printer and instruction manual, it installs in minutes. A serious wine collector needs to know the details of his home wine cellars by producer, vintage, variety drink-by date, and the value of his collection. Most importantly, he needs to be able to find each bottle instantly. eSommelier’s cellar inventory system provides all these features and more. Even for those not computer-inclined, the system is easy to use allowing one to manage collections from 100 to over a thousand. $8,000
Chill it, make it, or manage it – no matter your budget there is a unique gift out there for the wine lover on your list.
By: Nicholas.Adams
About the Author:
Helen Walker. eSommelier provides the wine lover the best wine software on the market.
Clement Depierre
Posted in Computers |
Tags: American Oak Barrels, Bottle Of Wine, Bottle Wine, Bottling Supplies, Eurocave, Oak Casks, Pound Barrel, Precise Temperature Control, Storing Wine, Wine Barrel, Wine Bistro, Wine Bottles, Wine Cellars, Wine Chiller, Wine Chillers, Wine Enthusiast, Wine Enthusiasts, Wine Lover, Wine Software, Wine Storage |
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Abstract
The dictionary defines maintenance as, “The work of keeping something in proper order.” However, this definition does not necessarily fit for software. Software maintenance is different from hardware maintenance because software doesn’t physically wear out, but often gets less useful with age. Software is typically delivered with undiscovered flaws. Therefore, software maintenance is: “The process of modifying existing operational software while leaving its primary functions intact.” Maintenance typically exceeds fifty percent of the systems’ life cycle cost . While software maintenance can be treated as a level of effort activity, there are consequences on quality, functionality, reliability, cost and schedule that can be mitigated through the use of parametric estimation techniques.
1. INTRODUCTION
One of the greatest challenges facing software engineers is the management of change control. It has been estimated that the cost of change control can be between 40% and 70% of the life cycle costs . Software engineers have hoped that new languages and new process would greatly reduce these numbers; however this has not been the case. Fundamentally this is because software is still delivered with a significant number of defects. Capers Jones estimates that there are about 5 bugs per Function Point created during Development . Watts Humphrey found “… even experienced software engineers normally inject 100 or more defects per KSLOC . Capers Jones says, “A series of studies the defect density of software ranges from 49.5 to 94.5 errors per thousand lines of code .” The purpose of this article is to first review the fundamentals of software maintenance and to present alternative approaches to estimating software maintenance. A key element to note is that development and management decisions made during the development process can significantly affect the developmental cost and the resulting maintenance costs.
2. SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE
Maintenance activities include all work carried out post-delivery and should be distinguished from block modifications which represent significant design and development effort and supersede a previously released software package. These maintenance activities can be quite diverse, and it helps to identify exactly what post-delivery activities are to be included in an estimate of maintenance effort. Maintenance activities, once defined, may be evaluated in a quite different light than when called simply “maintenance”. Software maintenance is different from hardware maintenance because software doesn’t physically wear out, but software often gets less useful with age and it may be delivered with undiscovered flaws. In addition to the undiscovered flaws, it is common that some number of known defects pass from the development organization to the maintenance group. Accurate estimation of the effort required to maintain delivered software is aided by the decomposition of the overall effort into the various activities that make up the whole process.
3. APPROACHING THE MAINTENANCE ISSUE
Maintenance is a complicated and structured process. In his textbook, Estimating Software Intensive Systems, Richard Stuzke outlines the typical software maintenance process. It is apparent that the process is more than just writing new code.
The following checklist can be used to explore the realism and accuracy of maintenance requirements.
? Which pieces of software will be maintained?
? How long will the system need to be maintained?
? Are you estimating the entire maintenance problem, or just incremental maintenance?
? What level of maintenance is required?
? Is that which is being called maintenance in fact a new development project?
? Who will do the maintenance? Will it be done organically by the original developer? Will there be a separate team?
? Will there be a separate organization?
? Will maintainers be using the same tools used during development? Are any proprietary tools required for maintenance?
? How much Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) is there? How tightly coupled are the interfaces?
? Some follow-on development may be disguised as maintenance. This will either inflate maintenance figures, or else cause shortfalls if basic maintenance gets pushed aside. These questions will help you ask whether maintenance is being honestly represented.
? Is the activity really an incremental improvement?
? Are healthy chunks of the original code being rewritten or changed?
? Will additional staff be brought in to perform the upgrade?
? Is the maintenance effort schedule regular and fairly flat, or does it contain staffing humps that look like new development?
4. SANITY CHECKS
Although sanity checks should be sought on a year-by-year basis, they should not be attempted for overall development. The reason for this is that maintenance activities can be carried on indefinitely, rendering any life-cycle rules useless. As an example, consider Grady (p. 17):
We spend about 2 to 3 times as much effort maintaining and enhancing software as we spend creating new software.
This and similar observations apply at an organizational level and higher, but not for a specific project. Any development group with a history will be embroiled in the long tail ends of their many delivered projects, still needing indefinite attention. Here are a few quick sanity checks:
? One maintainer can handle about 10,000 lines per year.
? Overall life-cycle effort is typically 40% development and 60% maintenance.
? Maintenance costs on average are one-sixth of yearly development costs.
? Successful systems are usually maintained for 10 to 20 years.
Finally, as in development, the amount of code that is new versus modified makes a difference. The effective size, that is, the equivalent effort if all the work were new code, is still the key input for both development and maintenance cost estimation.
5. FIVE ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES
All software estimation techniques must be able to model the theory and the likely real world result. The real world scenario is that over time, the overlay of changes upon changes makes software increasingly difficult to maintain and thus less useful. Maintenance effort estimation techniques range from the simplistic level of effort method, through more thoughtful analysis and development practice modifications, to the use of parametric models in order to use historical data to project future needs.
5.1 Level of Effort
As is sometimes the case in the development environment, software maintenance can be modeled as a level of effort activity. Given the repair category activities and the great variance that they show, this approach clearly has deficiencies. In this approach, a level of effort to maintain software is based on size and type.
5.2 Level of Effort Plus
Stuzke proposed that software maintenance starts with basic level of effort (minimum people needed to have a core competency and then that that basic core staff must be modified by assessing three additional factors; configuration management, quality assurance, and project management. His process addressed some of the additional factors affecting software maintenance.
5.3 Maintenance Change Factor
Software Cost Estimation with COCOMO II (Boehm 2000) proposes a deceivingly simple, but also quite useful methodology for determining annual maintenance. Maintenance is one of the menu selections in the menu bar. In COCOMO II Maintenance encompasses the process of modifying existing operational software while leaving its primary functions intact. This process excludes:
? Major re-design and re-development (more than 50% new code) of a new software product performing substantially the same functions.
? Design and development of a sizeable (more than 20% of the source instructions comprising the existing product)
interfacing software package which requires relatively little redesigning of the existing product.
? Data processing system operations, data entry, and modification of values in the database.
The maintenance calculations are heavily based upon the Maintenance Change Factor (MCF) and the Maintenance Adjustment Factor (MAF). The MCF is similar to the Annual change Traffic in COCOMO81, except that maintenance periods other than a year can be used. The resulting maintenance effort estimation formula is the same as the COCOMO II Post Architecture development model.
As stated previously, three cost drivers for maintenance differ from development. Those cost drivers are software reliability, modern programming practices, and schedule. COCOMO II assumes that increased investment in software reliability and use of modern programming practices during software development has a strong positive effect upon the maintenance stage.
Annual Maintenance Effort = (Annual Change Traffic) * (Original Software Development Effort)
The quantity Original Software Development Effort refers to the total effort (person-months or other unit of measure) expended throughout development, even if a multi-year project.
The multiplier Annual Change Traffic is the proportion of the overall software to be modified during the year. This is relatively easy to obtain from engineering estimates. Developers often maintain change lists, or have a sense of proportional change to be required even before development is complete.
5.4 Managing Software Maintenance Costs by Developmental Techniques and Management Decisions During Development When it comes to maintenance, “a penny spent is a pound saved.” Better development practices (even if more expensive) can significantly reduce maintenance effort, and reduce overall life cycle cost. The more effort put into development, the less required in maintenance. As an example, the software development cost and schedule can be significantly impacted (reduced) by letting the number of defects delivered grow. This cost and schedule reduction is more than offset by the increase in maintenance cost. The following discussion is an example of how management decision can significantly affect/reduce software maintenance costs.
Lloyd Huff and George Novak of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in their paper “Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Performance Based Software Sustainment for the F-35 Lightning II” propose a series of development and management decision designed to impact and reduce software maintenance costs. They propose an eight step process to estimate and control software maintenance . Their proposed steps are:
1. Strive for Commonality
2. Apply Industrial Engineering Practices to Software
3. Engage
4. Adopt a Holistic Approach to Sustainment
5. Develop Highly Maintainable Systems and Software
6. Manage the Off-the-Shelf Software
7. Plan for the Unexpected
8. Analyze and Refine the Software Sustainment Business Case (use Parametric software sustainment cost estimates)
5.5 A Parametric Assessment of Software Maintenance
Parametric models like SEER for Software allow maintenance to be modeled in either of two ways:
Estimating maintenance as a part of the total lifecycle cost. Choosing the appropriate Maintenance category parameters will include an estimate of maintenance effort with the development estimate for the individual software program. Several reports and charts show breakdowns of development vs. maintenance effort. This method is best used to evaluate life cycle costs for each individual software program.
Estimating maintenance as a separate activity. Using the appropriate maintenance parameters for the software to be maintained you can model the maintenance effort as a separate activity. This method will allow you to fine tune your maintenance estimate by adjusting parameters. Maintenance size should be the same as development size, but should be entered as all pre-existing code. This method can also be useful in breaking out total project maintenance costs from project development costs.
A good parametric estimate for maintenance includes a wide range of information. Critical information for completing a software maintenance estimate is the size or amount of software that will be maintained, the quality of that software, the quality and availability of the documentation, and the type or amount of maintenance that will be done. Many organizations don’t actually estimate maintenance costs; they simply have a budget for software maintenance. In this case, a parametric model should be used to compute how much maintenance can actually be performed with the given budget.
Estimating and planning for maintenance are critical activities if the software is required to function properly throughout its expected life. Even with a limited budget, a plan can be made to use the resources available in the most efficient, productive manner. Looking at the diagram above, you can see that not only are the multiple inputs that impact the maintenance, but there are several key outputs that provide the information necessary to plan a successful maintenance effort.
6. Conclusion
The conclusions of this article are:
? Software maintenance can be modeled using a simplistic method like Level of Effort Staffing, but this technique has significant drawbacks.
? Software maintenance costs can be significantly affected by management decisions during the developmental process.
? Software maintenance can be accurately estimated using parametric processes.
? Software maintenance is best modeled when development and management decisions are coupled with parametric cost estimation techniques.
REFERENCES
[1]Software Maintenance Concepts and Practices (second Edition) by Penny Grubb and Armstrong Takang, World Scientific, 2005.
[2]Estimating Software Intensive Systems; Richard Stuzke, 2005, Addison-Wesley.
[3]Lloyd Huff, George Novak; Lockheed Martin Aeronautics; Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Performance Based Software Sustainment for the F-35 Lightning II.
[4]G. Edward Bryan, “CP-6: Quality and Productivity Measures in the 15-Year Life Cycle of an Operating System,” Software Quality Journal 2, 129-144, June 1993.
[5] Software Sizing, Estimation, and Risk Management; Daniel D. Galorath, Michael W. Evans, 2006, Auerbach Publications.
By: Bob Hunt
About the Author:
The dictionary defines maintenance as, “The work of keeping something in proper order.” However, this definition does not necessarily fit for software. Software maintenance is different from hardware maintenance because software doesn’t physically wear out, but often gets less useful with age. Software is typically delivered with undiscovered flaws. Therefore, software maintenance is: “The process of modifying existing operational software while leaving its primary functions intact.” Maintenance typically exceeds fifty percent of the systems’ life cycle cost . While software maintenance can be treated as a level of effort activity, there are consequences on quality, functionality, reliability, cost and schedule that can be mitigated through the use of parametric estimation techniques.
1. INTRODUCTION
One of the greatest challenges facing software engineers is the management of change control. It has been estimated that the cost of change control can be between 40% and 70% of the life cycle costs . Software engineers have hoped that new languages and new process would greatly reduce these numbers; however this has not been the case. Fundamentally this is because software is still delivered with a significant number of defects. Capers Jones estimates that there are about 5 bugs per Function Point created during Development . Watts Humphrey found “… even experienced software engineers normally inject 100 or more defects per KSLOC . Capers Jones says, “A series of studies the defect density of software ranges from 49.5 to 94.5 errors per thousand lines of code .” The purpose of this article is to first review the fundamentals of software maintenance and to present alternative approaches to estimating software maintenance. A key element to note is that development and management decisions made during the development process can significantly affect the developmental cost and the resulting maintenance costs.
2. SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE
Maintenance activities include all work carried out post-delivery and should be distinguished from block modifications which represent significant design and development effort and supersede a previously released software package. These maintenance activities can be quite diverse, and it helps to identify exactly what post-delivery activities are to be included in an estimate of maintenance effort. Maintenance activities, once defined, may be evaluated in a quite different light than when called simply “maintenance”. Software maintenance is different from hardware maintenance because software doesn’t physically wear out, but software often gets less useful with age and it may be delivered with undiscovered flaws. In addition to the undiscovered flaws, it is common that some number of known defects pass from the development organization to the maintenance group. Accurate estimation of the effort required to maintain delivered software is aided by the decomposition of the overall effort into the various activities that make up the whole process.
3. APPROACHING THE MAINTENANCE ISSUE
Maintenance is a complicated and structured process. In his textbook, Estimating Software Intensive Systems, Richard Stuzke outlines the typical software maintenance process. It is apparent that the process is more than just writing new code.
The following checklist can be used to explore the realism and accuracy of maintenance requirements.
? Which pieces of software will be maintained?
? How long will the system need to be maintained?
? Are you estimating the entire maintenance problem, or just incremental maintenance?
? What level of maintenance is required?
? Is that which is being called maintenance in fact a new development project?
? Who will do the maintenance? Will it be done organically by the original developer? Will there be a separate team?
? Will there be a separate organization?
? Will maintainers be using the same tools used during development? Are any proprietary tools required for maintenance?
? How much Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) is there? How tightly coupled are the interfaces?
? Some follow-on development may be disguised as maintenance. This will either inflate maintenance figures, or else cause shortfalls if basic maintenance gets pushed aside. These questions will help you ask whether maintenance is being honestly represented.
? Is the activity really an incremental improvement?
? Are healthy chunks of the original code being rewritten or changed?
? Will additional staff be brought in to perform the upgrade?
? Is the maintenance effort schedule regular and fairly flat, or does it contain staffing humps that look like new development?
4. SANITY CHECKS
Although sanity checks should be sought on a year-by-year basis, they should not be attempted for overall development. The reason for this is that maintenance activities can be carried on indefinitely, rendering any life-cycle rules useless. As an example, consider Grady (p. 17):
We spend about 2 to 3 times as much effort maintaining and enhancing software as we spend creating new software.
This and similar observations apply at an organizational level and higher, but not for a specific project. Any development group with a history will be embroiled in the long tail ends of their many delivered projects, still needing indefinite attention. Here are a few quick sanity checks:
? One maintainer can handle about 10,000 lines per year.
? Overall life-cycle effort is typically 40% development and 60% maintenance.
? Maintenance costs on average are one-sixth of yearly development costs.
? Successful systems are usually maintained for 10 to 20 years.
Finally, as in development, the amount of code that is new versus modified makes a difference. The effective size, that is, the equivalent effort if all the work were new code, is still the key input for both development and maintenance cost estimation.
5. FIVE ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES
All software estimation techniques must be able to model the theory and the likely real world result. The real world scenario is that over time, the overlay of changes upon changes makes software increasingly difficult to maintain and thus less useful. Maintenance effort estimation techniques range from the simplistic level of effort method, through more thoughtful analysis and development practice modifications, to the use of parametric models in order to use historical data to project future needs.
5.1 Level of Effort
As is sometimes the case in the development environment, software maintenance can be modeled as a level of effort activity. Given the repair category activities and the great variance that they show, this approach clearly has deficiencies. In this approach, a level of effort to maintain software is based on size and type.
5.2 Level of Effort Plus
Stuzke proposed that software maintenance starts with basic level of effort (minimum people needed to have a core competency and then that that basic core staff must be modified by assessing three additional factors; configuration management, quality assurance, and project management. His process addressed some of the additional factors affecting software maintenance.
5.3 Maintenance Change Factor
Software Cost Estimation with COCOMO II (Boehm 2000) proposes a deceivingly simple, but also quite useful methodology for determining annual maintenance. Maintenance is one of the menu selections in the menu bar. In COCOMO II Maintenance encompasses the process of modifying existing operational software while leaving its primary functions intact. This process excludes:
? Major re-design and re-development (more than 50% new code) of a new software product performing substantially the same functions.
? Design and development of a sizeable (more than 20% of the source instructions comprising the existing product)
interfacing software package which requires relatively little redesigning of the existing product.
? Data processing system operations, data entry, and modification of values in the database.
The maintenance calculations are heavily based upon the Maintenance Change Factor (MCF) and the Maintenance Adjustment Factor (MAF). The MCF is similar to the Annual change Traffic in COCOMO81, except that maintenance periods other than a year can be used. The resulting maintenance effort estimation formula is the same as the COCOMO II Post Architecture development model.
As stated previously, three cost drivers for maintenance differ from development. Those cost drivers are software reliability, modern programming practices, and schedule. COCOMO II assumes that increased investment in software reliability and use of modern programming practices during software development has a strong positive effect upon the maintenance stage.
Annual Maintenance Effort = (Annual Change Traffic) * (Original Software Development Effort)
The quantity Original Software Development Effort refers to the total effort (person-months or other unit of measure) expended throughout development, even if a multi-year project.
The multiplier Annual Change Traffic is the proportion of the overall software to be modified during the year. This is relatively easy to obtain from engineering estimates. Developers often maintain change lists, or have a sense of proportional change to be required even before development is complete.
5.4 Managing Software Maintenance Costs by Developmental Techniques and Management Decisions During Development When it comes to maintenance, “a penny spent is a pound saved.” Better development practices (even if more expensive) can significantly reduce maintenance effort, and reduce overall life cycle cost. The more effort put into development, the less required in maintenance. As an example, the software development cost and schedule can be significantly impacted (reduced) by letting the number of defects delivered grow. This cost and schedule reduction is more than offset by the increase in maintenance cost. The following discussion is an example of how management decision can significantly affect/reduce software maintenance costs.
Lloyd Huff and George Novak of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in their paper “Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Performance Based Software Sustainment for the F-35 Lightning II” propose a series of development and management decision designed to impact and reduce software maintenance costs. They propose an eight step process to estimate and control software maintenance . Their proposed steps are:
1. Strive for Commonality
2. Apply Industrial Engineering Practices to Software
3. Engage
4. Adopt a Holistic Approach to Sustainment
5. Develop Highly Maintainable Systems and Software
6. Manage the Off-the-Shelf Software
7. Plan for the Unexpected
8. Analyze and Refine the Software Sustainment Business Case (use Parametric software sustainment cost estimates)
5.5 A Parametric Assessment of Software Maintenance
Parametric models like SEER for Software allow maintenance to be modeled in either of two ways:
Estimating maintenance as a part of the total lifecycle cost. Choosing the appropriate Maintenance category parameters will include an estimate of maintenance effort with the development estimate for the individual software program. Several reports and charts show breakdowns of development vs. maintenance effort. This method is best used to evaluate life cycle costs for each individual software program.
Estimating maintenance as a separate activity. Using the appropriate maintenance parameters for the software to be maintained you can model the maintenance effort as a separate activity. This method will allow you to fine tune your maintenance estimate by adjusting parameters. Maintenance size should be the same as development size, but should be entered as all pre-existing code. This method can also be useful in breaking out total project maintenance costs from project development costs.
A good parametric estimate for maintenance includes a wide range of information. Critical information for completing a software maintenance estimate is the size or amount of software that will be maintained, the quality of that software, the quality and availability of the documentation, and the type or amount of maintenance that will be done. Many organizations don’t actually estimate maintenance costs; they simply have a budget for software maintenance. In this case, a parametric model should be used to compute how much maintenance can actually be performed with the given budget.
Estimating and planning for maintenance are critical activities if the software is required to function properly throughout its expected life. Even with a limited budget, a plan can be made to use the resources available in the most efficient, productive manner. Looking at the diagram above, you can see that not only are the multiple inputs that impact the maintenance, but there are several key outputs that provide the information necessary to plan a successful maintenance effort.
6. Conclusion
The conclusions of this article are:
? Software maintenance can be modeled using a simplistic method like Level of Effort Staffing, but this technique has significant drawbacks.
? Software maintenance costs can be significantly affected by management decisions during the developmental process.
? Software maintenance can be accurately estimated using parametric processes.
? Software maintenance is best modeled when development and management decisions are coupled with parametric cost estimation techniques.
REFERENCES
[1]Software Maintenance Concepts and Practices (second Edition) by Penny Grubb and Armstrong Takang, World Scientific, 2005.
[2]Estimating Software Intensive Systems; Richard Stuzke, 2005, Addison-Wesley.
[3]Lloyd Huff, George Novak; Lockheed Martin Aeronautics; Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Performance Based Software Sustainment for the F-35 Lightning II.
[4]G. Edward Bryan, “CP-6: Quality and Productivity Measures in the 15-Year Life Cycle of an Operating System,” Software Quality Journal 2, 129-144, June 1993.
[5] Software Sizing, Estimation, and Risk Management; Daniel D. Galorath, Michael W. Evans, 2006, Auerbach Publications.
By: Bob Hunt
About the Author:
Bob Hunt is Vice President for Services of Galorath Incorporated, providing project management estimating software for complex projects. Mr. Hunt is responsible for the management and technical direction of the services staff and the quality of the services products.
Jan Schlinger
Posted in Computers |
Tags: Age Software, Capers Jones, Defect Density, Development And Management, Dictionary, Estimation Techniques, Hardware Maintenance, Humphrey, Life Cycle Cost, Life Cycle Costs, Maintenance Costs, Maintenance Implications, Management Decisions, Management Of Change, Operational Software, Parametric Estimation, Software Engineers, Software Maintenance, Software Ranges, Software Software |
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User-friendly Interface
It would be useless to obtain a sophisticated piece of software that claims all good functionality but you would not be able to use it. You really have to ensure that the management membership site software you purchase will not disappoint you and will truly serve to make things easier for you. A user-friendly interface will enable you to master the software more easily and you will be able to give less time for learning it and more time to actually using it for your purposes.
Usability
The software you buy for your membership site must be something that you can use conveniently. It must be easy to install, fast in loading and not intricate or prone to hang when you are using it simultaneously with other programs you use in your computer. You must also check the system requirements of the software to ensure that you get attain supreme functionality of your software and it is very much compatible with whatever you are using it with.
Affordability
How much does it cost? Is it under your budget? You must be able to weigh your options carefully. This will require you to really scour the market for this software and choose the best based on your needs and your available budget for this software. If you find something beyond your initial budget allotment but see that it is worth all that excess money, make the adjustments.
Company Credibility
Before buying anything, you must also check if the provider of the software is reliable in this field. You will be ensured of better service if there are more satisfied customers from the company you are buying your management software from. There are some companies which give more advanced features at a lower price, but if they are relatively new to the business and not yet established in this field, you may want to give a second though before buying from them.
Warranty and Effective Customer Service
Warranties of return if you get dissatisfied with the performance of the software, as well as the ready customer service available should you encounter glitches that require troubleshooting are essential and you must never take these for granted. The presence of a warranty ensures that the company is confident that you will be satisfied with their product and that they are willing to return your money if your expectations are not met. Companies with a no return, no exchange policy are much more riskier and may prove to be fatal if they are unreliable with their products.
Free Trials, if applicable
Free trial of the software will give you a feel for the product and allow you to gauge if it is really worth your money and time. Have as much free trials from different bands as you possibly can before making the decision of what brand to purchase. Check also once you try the software if they fit the exact descriptions they place when marketing the product.
Customizations of Features that can Suit Your Specific Needs
In line with checking for functionality, it is also very important that you can customize the software functions to suit your particular needs. Extra features will be useless if you will not find any concrete use for them. It is better to have a low end customizable software than have a high end one but not be able to truly use the benefits which require the extra dollar payments.
By: Mario R. Churchill
About the Author:
It would be useless to obtain a sophisticated piece of software that claims all good functionality but you would not be able to use it. You really have to ensure that the management membership site software you purchase will not disappoint you and will truly serve to make things easier for you. A user-friendly interface will enable you to master the software more easily and you will be able to give less time for learning it and more time to actually using it for your purposes.
Usability
The software you buy for your membership site must be something that you can use conveniently. It must be easy to install, fast in loading and not intricate or prone to hang when you are using it simultaneously with other programs you use in your computer. You must also check the system requirements of the software to ensure that you get attain supreme functionality of your software and it is very much compatible with whatever you are using it with.
Affordability
How much does it cost? Is it under your budget? You must be able to weigh your options carefully. This will require you to really scour the market for this software and choose the best based on your needs and your available budget for this software. If you find something beyond your initial budget allotment but see that it is worth all that excess money, make the adjustments.
Company Credibility
Before buying anything, you must also check if the provider of the software is reliable in this field. You will be ensured of better service if there are more satisfied customers from the company you are buying your management software from. There are some companies which give more advanced features at a lower price, but if they are relatively new to the business and not yet established in this field, you may want to give a second though before buying from them.
Warranty and Effective Customer Service
Warranties of return if you get dissatisfied with the performance of the software, as well as the ready customer service available should you encounter glitches that require troubleshooting are essential and you must never take these for granted. The presence of a warranty ensures that the company is confident that you will be satisfied with their product and that they are willing to return your money if your expectations are not met. Companies with a no return, no exchange policy are much more riskier and may prove to be fatal if they are unreliable with their products.
Free Trials, if applicable
Free trial of the software will give you a feel for the product and allow you to gauge if it is really worth your money and time. Have as much free trials from different bands as you possibly can before making the decision of what brand to purchase. Check also once you try the software if they fit the exact descriptions they place when marketing the product.
Customizations of Features that can Suit Your Specific Needs
In line with checking for functionality, it is also very important that you can customize the software functions to suit your particular needs. Extra features will be useless if you will not find any concrete use for them. It is better to have a low end customizable software than have a high end one but not be able to truly use the benefits which require the extra dollar payments.
By: Mario R. Churchill
About the Author:
Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information on membership software or for membership management software checkout his website.
Charlene Esquivel
Posted in Computers |
Tags: Advanced Features, Affordability, Allotment, Budget Software, Credibility, Customer Service, Excess Money, Functionality, Initial Budget, Management Software, Performanc, Service Warranties, Site Software, Software Interface, Sophisticated Piece, System Requirements, Usability, Warranty, Web Interface, Web User |
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Key No 1 – Charting the course of success for your technology investment
Is your current ERP system is lacking in functionality? Does it limit your ability to respond quickly to customers’ requests? Where are you placed in comparison with your competitors, and does your existing system help you or hinder you in meeting industry best practice or benchmarks? Are you simply unhappy with your current supplier and their ability to respond to your requirements, let alone those of your customers?
Whatever the case, you are unlikely to stand alone in these areas – many companies have faced similar issues with their ERP systems, so no user is likely to be unique. There are common drivers you can consider in your deliberations over a replacement ERP system, and these include the measures you use to chart the success of your technology investment, the major issues you need to address and the consideration of how much pain you are willing to put up with to achieve your ultimate goal.
According to Aberdeen Group’s 2007 ERP in Manufacturing Benchmark Report, 328 companies out of 1245 companies surveyed were planning to replace their current ERP systems at one or more locations within the next three years. In other words, at any one time, a quarter of companies are looking to replace their existing ERP systems.
In the past, enterprise resource planning has garnered a mixed reputation. While there are fundamental reasons and obvious benefits for going down the ERP path, many have feared – rightly or wrongly – that ERP entailed major organisational disruption if not re-engineering, at high cost and high risk.
Aberdeen Group reports (“When Replacing ERP – Size Matters”, June 2007) the primary driver for large companies is consolidation and rationalisation strategies. An underlying issue, considering the proliferation of ERP and other enterprise applications, is the need for integration. For mid-sized and small companies, on the other hand, the concerns are more with gaining functionality and integration. These sized firms are also more heavily concerned with updating their outdated user interfaces, an important factor in raising employee productivity and efficiencies.
Other issues include requirements of expansion, pressure from trading partners, compliance with regulation and even disastrous events, but overall companies looking at ERP implementations are primarily seeking “low cost options that minimise risk”.
Risk and cost in combination imply a concern for return on investment, but Aberdeen’s surveys show that fewer than 25 per cent of respondents consistently estimate ROI to cost estimate ERP projects, and 20 per cent or less measure the actual post-implementation costs and gains to calculate ROI.
In contrast, “best in class companies are on average 88 per cent more likely to estimate ROI before initiating projects and are 130 per cent more likely to measure ROI after project completion. As a result, these best performing companies produce, on average, 93 per cent more improvement across a variety of metrics such as cost reductions, schedule performance, headcount reduction or redeployment and quality improvements.”
The reality is that minimising risk with an ERP implementation is an achievable result and, by minimising risk, costs should also be kept under control. By following a formal process of charting the reasons for your implementation, assessing the various offerings from your current supplier and, importantly, from suppliers who might be new to you, and checking off against the various criteria for selection, an ERP implementation need not be a nightmare; in fact, it could prove to be the instigator of quantifiable benefits for all concerned.
Specific success markers
Getting down to brass tacks, there are a number of key aspects of an ERP system that need to be addressed, both prior to any decision to move to such a system and certainly as part of selection criteria. Near the top of the list is total cost of ownership, which incorporates:
Software and implementation costs;
Costs associated with any interfaces or system modifications;
All costs associated with system communications;
Costs associated with employing additional or specialised staff; and
Annual costs for system upgrades and helpline support.
Other specific areas of consideration that will impact on the success or otherwise of your ERP program include:
Functionality;
Ease of use;
Integration capabilities;
Ease and speed of implementation;
Ability to tailor functionality without programming; and
Software licence price.
Added to this, or overarching these considerations, is return on investment. Whether and how quickly you achieve this is dependent on many factors, not least the rigour and realism applied to the assessment of current circumstances and the contribution made by the ERP system as outlined in initial business cases. An article as far back as the European Journal of Information Systems in 1996 reported on a survey of the 200 largest UK companies that found that 47 per cent openly admitted to overstating the benefits to get approval for IT investments.
But wishful thinking and creative accounting aside, these are all relevant considerations. (And in future articles, covering total cost of ownership, selection criteria, best and worst practices, and maximising ROI, we will look at them in more detail.) But it should be noted that the level and mix of these factors and how successfully they are achieved is specific to individual sets of circumstances, including size and type of organisation, intended purpose, individual business priorities and, of course, budget.
The big picture
The overriding consideration that affects all organisations, large or small, regardless of industry sector or even of budget, is alignment with the business objectives of your organisation.
Jerry Luftman and Rajkumar Kempaiah of the Stevens Institute of Technology suggest (“An update on business-IT alignment”, September 2007) that the issue of achieving IT-business alignment was first documented in the late 1970s and was in the top 10 IT management issues from 1980 through 1994, as reported by the Society for Information Management. Since 1994 it has consistently been issue #1 or #2.
Nonetheless, it has proved to be an elusive target. Luftman and Kempaiah suggest a number of reasons for this, including that, while IT might be aligned with the business, business is rarely aligned with IT. They also add that organisations have often looked for a ‘silver bullet’, whether technological solution or improved communications, as well as improved governance to identify and prioritise projects, resources and risks. Another reason they suggest for missing the alignment target has been the lack of an effective tool to gauge the maturity of IT-business alignment.
On this last point, they suggest a set of six components that indicate (if not mandate) alignment maturity: Communications – exchange of ideas, knowledge and information between IT and business; Value – balanced measurements to demonstrate the contributions of information technology and the IT organisation in terms that both business and IT understand;
Governance – who has authority to make IT decisions and set IT priorities;
Partnership – including IT’s role in defining business strategies, the degree of trust and how each perceives the other’s contribution;
Scope and architecture – IT’s provision of flexible infrastructure, evaluation of emerging technologies, driving business process change, and delivery of customised solutions internally and externally; and
Skills – HR practices of hiring and retention, encouragement of innovation, developing individuals’ skills, and the organisation’s readiness for change, capability to learn and ability to leverage new ideas.
Interestingly, they say that “business executives score alignment maturity higher than IT executives”. In other words, it is the IT side of the business that feels most that alignment is not being achieved. Whether your organisation complies with these suggestions – and it should be added that sometimes these factors can be seen as reflections of alignment maturity as opposed to stepping-stones for achieving that heightened state – any IT implementation, especially one as significant as ERP, should keep all of these factors top of mind.
Supply chain criteria
Many ERP systems are implemented as part of the supply chain process of an organisation. Here, again, the above success markers are relevant, but Tim Payne of Gartner (“Supply chain and IT strategies must align around five key themes”, August 2007) suggests that “enterprises should focus on five technology areas – business process agility, data management, analytics and performance management, collaboration, and sensory networks – as the sources of technology-enabled supply chain innovation”.
Payne says “focusing on these technology areas will give the IT organisation more credibility as an ongoing participant in the dialogue [with the supply Key No 1 - Charting the course of success for your technology investment
Is your current ERP system is lacking in functionality? Does it limit your ability to respond quickly to customers' requests? Where are you placed in comparison with your competitors, and does your existing system help you or hinder you in meeting industry best practice or benchmarks? Are you simply unhappy with your current supplier and their ability to respond to your requirements, let alone those of your customers?
Whatever the case, you are unlikely to stand alone in these areas - many companies have faced similar issues with their ERP systems, so no user is likely to be unique. There are common drivers you can consider in your deliberations over a replacement ERP system, and these include the measures you use to chart the success of your technology investment, the major issues you need to address and the consideration of how much pain you are willing to put up with to achieve your ultimate goal.
According to Aberdeen Group's 2007 ERP in Manufacturing Benchmark Report, 328 companies out of 1245 companies surveyed were planning to replace their current ERP systems at one or more locations within the next three years. In other words, at any one time, a quarter of companies are looking to replace their existing ERP systems.
In the past, enterprise resource planning has garnered a mixed reputation. While there are fundamental reasons and obvious benefits for going down the ERP path, many have feared - rightly or wrongly - that ERP entailed major organisational disruption if not re-engineering, at high cost and high risk.
Aberdeen Group reports ("When Replacing ERP - Size Matters", June 2007) the primary driver for large companies is consolidation and rationalisation strategies. An underlying issue, considering the proliferation of ERP and other enterprise applications, is the need for integration. For mid-sized and small companies, on the other hand, the concerns are more with gaining functionality and integration. These sized firms are also more heavily concerned with updating their outdated user interfaces, an important factor in raising employee productivity and efficiencies.
Other issues include requirements of expansion, pressure from trading partners, compliance with regulation and even disastrous events, but overall companies looking at ERP implementations are primarily seeking "low cost options that minimise risk".
Risk and cost in combination imply a concern for return on investment, but Aberdeen's surveys show that fewer than 25 per cent of respondents consistently estimate ROI to cost estimate ERP projects, and 20 per cent or less measure the actual post-implementation costs and gains to calculate ROI.
In contrast, "best in class companies are on average 88 per cent more likely to estimate ROI before initiating projects and are 130 per cent more likely to measure ROI after project completion. As a result, these best performing companies produce, on average, 93 per cent more improvement across a variety of metrics such as cost reductions, schedule performance, headcount reduction or redeployment and quality improvements."
The reality is that minimising risk with an ERP implementation is an achievable result and, by minimising risk, costs should also be kept under control. By following a formal process of charting the reasons for your implementation, assessing the various offerings from your current supplier and, importantly, from suppliers who might be new to you, and checking off against the various criteria for selection, an ERP implementation need not be a nightmare; in fact, it could prove to be the instigator of quantifiable benefits for all concerned.
Specific success markers
Getting down to brass tacks, there are a number of key aspects of an ERP system that need to be addressed, both prior to any decision to move to such a system and certainly as part of selection criteria. Near the top of the list is total cost of ownership, which incorporates:
Software and implementation costs;
Costs associated with any interfaces or system modifications;
All costs associated with system communications;
Costs associated with employing additional or specialised staff; and
Annual costs for system upgrades and helpline support.
Other specific areas of consideration that will impact on the success or otherwise of your ERP program include:
Functionality;
Ease of use;
Integration capabilities;
Ease and speed of implementation;
Ability to tailor functionality without programming; and
Software licence price.
Added to this, or overarching these considerations, is return on investment. Whether and how quickly you achieve this is dependent on many factors, not least the rigour and realism applied to the assessment of current circumstances and the contribution made by the ERP system as outlined in initial business cases. An article as far back as the European Journal of Information Systems in 1996 reported on a survey of the 200 largest UK companies that found that 47 per cent openly admitted to overstating the benefits to get approval for IT investments.
But wishful thinking and creative accounting aside, these are all relevant considerations. (And in future articles, covering total cost of ownership, selection criteria, best and worst practices, and maximising ROI, we will look at them in more detail.) But it should be noted that the level and mix of these factors and how successfully they are achieved is specific to individual sets of circumstances, including size and type of organisation, intended purpose, individual business priorities and, of course, budget.
The big picture
The overriding consideration that affects all organisations, large or small, regardless of industry sector or even of budget, is alignment with the business objectives of your organisation.
Jerry Luftman and Rajkumar Kempaiah of the Stevens Institute of Technology suggest ("An update on business-IT alignment", September 2007) that the issue of achieving IT-business alignment was first documented in the late 1970s and was in the top 10 IT management issues from 1980 through 1994, as reported by the Society for Information Management. Since 1994 it has consistently been issue #1 or #2.
Nonetheless, it has proved to be an elusive target. Luftman and Kempaiah suggest a number of reasons for this, including that, while IT might be aligned with the business, business is rarely aligned with IT. They also add that organisations have often looked for a 'silver bullet', whether technological solution or improved communications, as well as improved governance to identify and prioritise projects, resources and risks. Another reason they suggest for missing the alignment target has been the lack of an effective tool to gauge the maturity of IT-business alignment.
On this last point, they suggest a set of six components that indicate (if not mandate) alignment maturity: Communications - exchange of ideas, knowledge and information between IT and business; Value - balanced measurements to demonstrate the contributions of information technology and the IT organisation in terms that both business and IT understand;
Governance - who has authority to make IT decisions and set IT priorities;
Partnership - including IT's role in defining business strategies, the degree of trust and how each perceives the other's contribution;
Scope and architecture - IT's provision of flexible infrastructure, evaluation of emerging technologies, driving business process change, and delivery of customised solutions internally and externally; and
Skills - HR practices of hiring and retention, encouragement of innovation, developing individuals' skills, and the organisation's readiness for change, capability to learn and ability to leverage new ideas.
Interestingly, they say that "business executives score alignment maturity higher than IT executives". In other words, it is the IT side of the business that feels most that alignment is not being achieved. Whether your organisation complies with these suggestions - and it should be added that sometimes these factors can be seen as reflections of alignment maturity as opposed to stepping-stones for achieving that heightened state - any IT implementation, especially one as significant as ERP, should keep all of these factors top of mind.
Supply chain criteria
Many ERP systems are implemented as part of the supply chain process of an organisation. Here, again, the above success markers are relevant, but Tim Payne of Gartner ("Supply chain and IT strategies must align around five key themes", August 2007) suggests that "enterprises should focus on five technology areas - business process agility, data management, analytics and performance management, collaboration, and sensory networks - as the sources of technology-enabled supply chain innovation".
Payne says "focusing on these technology areas will give the IT organisation more credibility as an ongoing participant in the dialogue [with the supply chain organisation]“. He goes on to recommend:
Periodic demonstrations of new technology capabilities, coupled with the co-development of supply chain initiatives, as new capabilities arise in these areas;
Developing a plan for incorporating new infrastructure components that are needed to support innovation areas; and
Evaluating the supply chain IT strategies and SCM vendor-sourcing criteria with the supply chain organisation for conformance and alignment based on the five key themes and related discussions, adjusting IT and sourcing strategies to address perceived gaps.
All well and good. But, despite the best planning and setting of firm criteria, there is always the issue of compromise – that such an important and far-reaching a system as an ERP will not perfectly match your organisational set-up. The Aberdeen report suggests that “if your business processes were developed over time – in an unstructured way – the possibility exists that no ERP system will match exactly. Search out ERP solution providers with customers in your industry, evaluate the fit, and balance the need to adapt your business processes to conform with the software against aligning the software to your processes. While some customisation of software may be necessary, (only 11 per cent of respondents have zero customisation) it adds expense and effort to the initial implementation, and the complexity of future upgrades.”
In other words, if you bend a little to accommodate the ERP, while still maintaining your markers of success, you will find that the ultimate payback is a system that works well with an organisation in sync with itself.
It is important overall, therefore, to look at all options, and that includes a range of suppliers, to assess the issues, drivers and pain points that you may have been facing in the past, and that you might be looking to deal with or, hopefully, avoid in the future to ensure the best fit for your organisation.
The next article in this series will look at “Managing the total cost of ownership – What you need to know”.
IBS Australia develops ERP solutions, ERP Systems and business management supply chain software for inventory management systems, manufacturing ERP software, business intelligence systems and integration ERP software.
Peter Clarke will present on ERP Systems at the Gartner 2008 ITxpo, 11-14 November to be held in Sydney, Australia
References:
?Jutras, C., and Barnett, R., “The total cost of ERP ownership in large companies”, Aberdeen Group, July 2008
?Jutras, C., and Dalle Tezze, H., “When replacing ERP – size matters”, Aberdeen Group, June 2007
?Jutras, C., Trost, J., and Dalle Tezze, H., “Taking the ERP plunge for the first time”, July 2007
?IBS, “5 things you should know about total cost of ownership (TCO) for ERP systems”, IBS Australia, March 2008
?IBS, “6 essential considerations when selecting an ERP system”, IBS Australia, February 2008
?Luftman, J., and Kempaiah, R., “An update on business-IT alignment: ‘A line’ has been drawn”, MIS Quarterly Executive, Vol 6 No 3, September 2007
?Payne, T., “Supply chain and IT strategies must align around five key themes”, Gartner Research, August 2007
?Ward, J., Daniel, E., and Peppard, J., “Building better business cases for IT investments”, MIS Quarterly Executive, Vol 7 No 1, March 2008
?Ward, J., Taylor, P., and Bond, P., “Evaluation and realization of IS/IT benefits: an empirical study of current practice”, European Journal of Information Systems (4), 1996, pp 214-225 (as cited in Ward et al, 2008).
By: Peter Clarke
About the Author:
Is your current ERP system is lacking in functionality? Does it limit your ability to respond quickly to customers’ requests? Where are you placed in comparison with your competitors, and does your existing system help you or hinder you in meeting industry best practice or benchmarks? Are you simply unhappy with your current supplier and their ability to respond to your requirements, let alone those of your customers?
Whatever the case, you are unlikely to stand alone in these areas – many companies have faced similar issues with their ERP systems, so no user is likely to be unique. There are common drivers you can consider in your deliberations over a replacement ERP system, and these include the measures you use to chart the success of your technology investment, the major issues you need to address and the consideration of how much pain you are willing to put up with to achieve your ultimate goal.
According to Aberdeen Group’s 2007 ERP in Manufacturing Benchmark Report, 328 companies out of 1245 companies surveyed were planning to replace their current ERP systems at one or more locations within the next three years. In other words, at any one time, a quarter of companies are looking to replace their existing ERP systems.
In the past, enterprise resource planning has garnered a mixed reputation. While there are fundamental reasons and obvious benefits for going down the ERP path, many have feared – rightly or wrongly – that ERP entailed major organisational disruption if not re-engineering, at high cost and high risk.
Aberdeen Group reports (“When Replacing ERP – Size Matters”, June 2007) the primary driver for large companies is consolidation and rationalisation strategies. An underlying issue, considering the proliferation of ERP and other enterprise applications, is the need for integration. For mid-sized and small companies, on the other hand, the concerns are more with gaining functionality and integration. These sized firms are also more heavily concerned with updating their outdated user interfaces, an important factor in raising employee productivity and efficiencies.
Other issues include requirements of expansion, pressure from trading partners, compliance with regulation and even disastrous events, but overall companies looking at ERP implementations are primarily seeking “low cost options that minimise risk”.
Risk and cost in combination imply a concern for return on investment, but Aberdeen’s surveys show that fewer than 25 per cent of respondents consistently estimate ROI to cost estimate ERP projects, and 20 per cent or less measure the actual post-implementation costs and gains to calculate ROI.
In contrast, “best in class companies are on average 88 per cent more likely to estimate ROI before initiating projects and are 130 per cent more likely to measure ROI after project completion. As a result, these best performing companies produce, on average, 93 per cent more improvement across a variety of metrics such as cost reductions, schedule performance, headcount reduction or redeployment and quality improvements.”
The reality is that minimising risk with an ERP implementation is an achievable result and, by minimising risk, costs should also be kept under control. By following a formal process of charting the reasons for your implementation, assessing the various offerings from your current supplier and, importantly, from suppliers who might be new to you, and checking off against the various criteria for selection, an ERP implementation need not be a nightmare; in fact, it could prove to be the instigator of quantifiable benefits for all concerned.
Specific success markers
Getting down to brass tacks, there are a number of key aspects of an ERP system that need to be addressed, both prior to any decision to move to such a system and certainly as part of selection criteria. Near the top of the list is total cost of ownership, which incorporates:
Software and implementation costs;
Costs associated with any interfaces or system modifications;
All costs associated with system communications;
Costs associated with employing additional or specialised staff; and
Annual costs for system upgrades and helpline support.
Other specific areas of consideration that will impact on the success or otherwise of your ERP program include:
Functionality;
Ease of use;
Integration capabilities;
Ease and speed of implementation;
Ability to tailor functionality without programming; and
Software licence price.
Added to this, or overarching these considerations, is return on investment. Whether and how quickly you achieve this is dependent on many factors, not least the rigour and realism applied to the assessment of current circumstances and the contribution made by the ERP system as outlined in initial business cases. An article as far back as the European Journal of Information Systems in 1996 reported on a survey of the 200 largest UK companies that found that 47 per cent openly admitted to overstating the benefits to get approval for IT investments.
But wishful thinking and creative accounting aside, these are all relevant considerations. (And in future articles, covering total cost of ownership, selection criteria, best and worst practices, and maximising ROI, we will look at them in more detail.) But it should be noted that the level and mix of these factors and how successfully they are achieved is specific to individual sets of circumstances, including size and type of organisation, intended purpose, individual business priorities and, of course, budget.
The big picture
The overriding consideration that affects all organisations, large or small, regardless of industry sector or even of budget, is alignment with the business objectives of your organisation.
Jerry Luftman and Rajkumar Kempaiah of the Stevens Institute of Technology suggest (“An update on business-IT alignment”, September 2007) that the issue of achieving IT-business alignment was first documented in the late 1970s and was in the top 10 IT management issues from 1980 through 1994, as reported by the Society for Information Management. Since 1994 it has consistently been issue #1 or #2.
Nonetheless, it has proved to be an elusive target. Luftman and Kempaiah suggest a number of reasons for this, including that, while IT might be aligned with the business, business is rarely aligned with IT. They also add that organisations have often looked for a ‘silver bullet’, whether technological solution or improved communications, as well as improved governance to identify and prioritise projects, resources and risks. Another reason they suggest for missing the alignment target has been the lack of an effective tool to gauge the maturity of IT-business alignment.
On this last point, they suggest a set of six components that indicate (if not mandate) alignment maturity: Communications – exchange of ideas, knowledge and information between IT and business; Value – balanced measurements to demonstrate the contributions of information technology and the IT organisation in terms that both business and IT understand;
Governance – who has authority to make IT decisions and set IT priorities;
Partnership – including IT’s role in defining business strategies, the degree of trust and how each perceives the other’s contribution;
Scope and architecture – IT’s provision of flexible infrastructure, evaluation of emerging technologies, driving business process change, and delivery of customised solutions internally and externally; and
Skills – HR practices of hiring and retention, encouragement of innovation, developing individuals’ skills, and the organisation’s readiness for change, capability to learn and ability to leverage new ideas.
Interestingly, they say that “business executives score alignment maturity higher than IT executives”. In other words, it is the IT side of the business that feels most that alignment is not being achieved. Whether your organisation complies with these suggestions – and it should be added that sometimes these factors can be seen as reflections of alignment maturity as opposed to stepping-stones for achieving that heightened state – any IT implementation, especially one as significant as ERP, should keep all of these factors top of mind.
Supply chain criteria
Many ERP systems are implemented as part of the supply chain process of an organisation. Here, again, the above success markers are relevant, but Tim Payne of Gartner (“Supply chain and IT strategies must align around five key themes”, August 2007) suggests that “enterprises should focus on five technology areas – business process agility, data management, analytics and performance management, collaboration, and sensory networks – as the sources of technology-enabled supply chain innovation”.
Payne says “focusing on these technology areas will give the IT organisation more credibility as an ongoing participant in the dialogue [with the supply Key No 1 - Charting the course of success for your technology investment
Is your current ERP system is lacking in functionality? Does it limit your ability to respond quickly to customers' requests? Where are you placed in comparison with your competitors, and does your existing system help you or hinder you in meeting industry best practice or benchmarks? Are you simply unhappy with your current supplier and their ability to respond to your requirements, let alone those of your customers?
Whatever the case, you are unlikely to stand alone in these areas - many companies have faced similar issues with their ERP systems, so no user is likely to be unique. There are common drivers you can consider in your deliberations over a replacement ERP system, and these include the measures you use to chart the success of your technology investment, the major issues you need to address and the consideration of how much pain you are willing to put up with to achieve your ultimate goal.
According to Aberdeen Group's 2007 ERP in Manufacturing Benchmark Report, 328 companies out of 1245 companies surveyed were planning to replace their current ERP systems at one or more locations within the next three years. In other words, at any one time, a quarter of companies are looking to replace their existing ERP systems.
In the past, enterprise resource planning has garnered a mixed reputation. While there are fundamental reasons and obvious benefits for going down the ERP path, many have feared - rightly or wrongly - that ERP entailed major organisational disruption if not re-engineering, at high cost and high risk.
Aberdeen Group reports ("When Replacing ERP - Size Matters", June 2007) the primary driver for large companies is consolidation and rationalisation strategies. An underlying issue, considering the proliferation of ERP and other enterprise applications, is the need for integration. For mid-sized and small companies, on the other hand, the concerns are more with gaining functionality and integration. These sized firms are also more heavily concerned with updating their outdated user interfaces, an important factor in raising employee productivity and efficiencies.
Other issues include requirements of expansion, pressure from trading partners, compliance with regulation and even disastrous events, but overall companies looking at ERP implementations are primarily seeking "low cost options that minimise risk".
Risk and cost in combination imply a concern for return on investment, but Aberdeen's surveys show that fewer than 25 per cent of respondents consistently estimate ROI to cost estimate ERP projects, and 20 per cent or less measure the actual post-implementation costs and gains to calculate ROI.
In contrast, "best in class companies are on average 88 per cent more likely to estimate ROI before initiating projects and are 130 per cent more likely to measure ROI after project completion. As a result, these best performing companies produce, on average, 93 per cent more improvement across a variety of metrics such as cost reductions, schedule performance, headcount reduction or redeployment and quality improvements."
The reality is that minimising risk with an ERP implementation is an achievable result and, by minimising risk, costs should also be kept under control. By following a formal process of charting the reasons for your implementation, assessing the various offerings from your current supplier and, importantly, from suppliers who might be new to you, and checking off against the various criteria for selection, an ERP implementation need not be a nightmare; in fact, it could prove to be the instigator of quantifiable benefits for all concerned.
Specific success markers
Getting down to brass tacks, there are a number of key aspects of an ERP system that need to be addressed, both prior to any decision to move to such a system and certainly as part of selection criteria. Near the top of the list is total cost of ownership, which incorporates:
Software and implementation costs;
Costs associated with any interfaces or system modifications;
All costs associated with system communications;
Costs associated with employing additional or specialised staff; and
Annual costs for system upgrades and helpline support.
Other specific areas of consideration that will impact on the success or otherwise of your ERP program include:
Functionality;
Ease of use;
Integration capabilities;
Ease and speed of implementation;
Ability to tailor functionality without programming; and
Software licence price.
Added to this, or overarching these considerations, is return on investment. Whether and how quickly you achieve this is dependent on many factors, not least the rigour and realism applied to the assessment of current circumstances and the contribution made by the ERP system as outlined in initial business cases. An article as far back as the European Journal of Information Systems in 1996 reported on a survey of the 200 largest UK companies that found that 47 per cent openly admitted to overstating the benefits to get approval for IT investments.
But wishful thinking and creative accounting aside, these are all relevant considerations. (And in future articles, covering total cost of ownership, selection criteria, best and worst practices, and maximising ROI, we will look at them in more detail.) But it should be noted that the level and mix of these factors and how successfully they are achieved is specific to individual sets of circumstances, including size and type of organisation, intended purpose, individual business priorities and, of course, budget.
The big picture
The overriding consideration that affects all organisations, large or small, regardless of industry sector or even of budget, is alignment with the business objectives of your organisation.
Jerry Luftman and Rajkumar Kempaiah of the Stevens Institute of Technology suggest ("An update on business-IT alignment", September 2007) that the issue of achieving IT-business alignment was first documented in the late 1970s and was in the top 10 IT management issues from 1980 through 1994, as reported by the Society for Information Management. Since 1994 it has consistently been issue #1 or #2.
Nonetheless, it has proved to be an elusive target. Luftman and Kempaiah suggest a number of reasons for this, including that, while IT might be aligned with the business, business is rarely aligned with IT. They also add that organisations have often looked for a 'silver bullet', whether technological solution or improved communications, as well as improved governance to identify and prioritise projects, resources and risks. Another reason they suggest for missing the alignment target has been the lack of an effective tool to gauge the maturity of IT-business alignment.
On this last point, they suggest a set of six components that indicate (if not mandate) alignment maturity: Communications - exchange of ideas, knowledge and information between IT and business; Value - balanced measurements to demonstrate the contributions of information technology and the IT organisation in terms that both business and IT understand;
Governance - who has authority to make IT decisions and set IT priorities;
Partnership - including IT's role in defining business strategies, the degree of trust and how each perceives the other's contribution;
Scope and architecture - IT's provision of flexible infrastructure, evaluation of emerging technologies, driving business process change, and delivery of customised solutions internally and externally; and
Skills - HR practices of hiring and retention, encouragement of innovation, developing individuals' skills, and the organisation's readiness for change, capability to learn and ability to leverage new ideas.
Interestingly, they say that "business executives score alignment maturity higher than IT executives". In other words, it is the IT side of the business that feels most that alignment is not being achieved. Whether your organisation complies with these suggestions - and it should be added that sometimes these factors can be seen as reflections of alignment maturity as opposed to stepping-stones for achieving that heightened state - any IT implementation, especially one as significant as ERP, should keep all of these factors top of mind.
Supply chain criteria
Many ERP systems are implemented as part of the supply chain process of an organisation. Here, again, the above success markers are relevant, but Tim Payne of Gartner ("Supply chain and IT strategies must align around five key themes", August 2007) suggests that "enterprises should focus on five technology areas - business process agility, data management, analytics and performance management, collaboration, and sensory networks - as the sources of technology-enabled supply chain innovation".
Payne says "focusing on these technology areas will give the IT organisation more credibility as an ongoing participant in the dialogue [with the supply chain organisation]“. He goes on to recommend:
Periodic demonstrations of new technology capabilities, coupled with the co-development of supply chain initiatives, as new capabilities arise in these areas;
Developing a plan for incorporating new infrastructure components that are needed to support innovation areas; and
Evaluating the supply chain IT strategies and SCM vendor-sourcing criteria with the supply chain organisation for conformance and alignment based on the five key themes and related discussions, adjusting IT and sourcing strategies to address perceived gaps.
All well and good. But, despite the best planning and setting of firm criteria, there is always the issue of compromise – that such an important and far-reaching a system as an ERP will not perfectly match your organisational set-up. The Aberdeen report suggests that “if your business processes were developed over time – in an unstructured way – the possibility exists that no ERP system will match exactly. Search out ERP solution providers with customers in your industry, evaluate the fit, and balance the need to adapt your business processes to conform with the software against aligning the software to your processes. While some customisation of software may be necessary, (only 11 per cent of respondents have zero customisation) it adds expense and effort to the initial implementation, and the complexity of future upgrades.”
In other words, if you bend a little to accommodate the ERP, while still maintaining your markers of success, you will find that the ultimate payback is a system that works well with an organisation in sync with itself.
It is important overall, therefore, to look at all options, and that includes a range of suppliers, to assess the issues, drivers and pain points that you may have been facing in the past, and that you might be looking to deal with or, hopefully, avoid in the future to ensure the best fit for your organisation.
The next article in this series will look at “Managing the total cost of ownership – What you need to know”.
IBS Australia develops ERP solutions, ERP Systems and business management supply chain software for inventory management systems, manufacturing ERP software, business intelligence systems and integration ERP software.
Peter Clarke will present on ERP Systems at the Gartner 2008 ITxpo, 11-14 November to be held in Sydney, Australia
References:
?Jutras, C., and Barnett, R., “The total cost of ERP ownership in large companies”, Aberdeen Group, July 2008
?Jutras, C., and Dalle Tezze, H., “When replacing ERP – size matters”, Aberdeen Group, June 2007
?Jutras, C., Trost, J., and Dalle Tezze, H., “Taking the ERP plunge for the first time”, July 2007
?IBS, “5 things you should know about total cost of ownership (TCO) for ERP systems”, IBS Australia, March 2008
?IBS, “6 essential considerations when selecting an ERP system”, IBS Australia, February 2008
?Luftman, J., and Kempaiah, R., “An update on business-IT alignment: ‘A line’ has been drawn”, MIS Quarterly Executive, Vol 6 No 3, September 2007
?Payne, T., “Supply chain and IT strategies must align around five key themes”, Gartner Research, August 2007
?Ward, J., Daniel, E., and Peppard, J., “Building better business cases for IT investments”, MIS Quarterly Executive, Vol 7 No 1, March 2008
?Ward, J., Taylor, P., and Bond, P., “Evaluation and realization of IS/IT benefits: an empirical study of current practice”, European Journal of Information Systems (4), 1996, pp 214-225 (as cited in Ward et al, 2008).
By: Peter Clarke
About the Author:
With more than 20 years of experience Peter Clarke has led ERP and Business Management Supply Chain projects for The Laminex Group, Sigma Pharmaceuticals, Miele and Hino. To view his articles, meet Peter or to join his presentation at Gartner ITExpo visit Supply Chain Secrets
Norine Janik
Posted in Computers |
Tags: Aberdeen Group, Benchmark Report, Benchmarks, Charting The Course, Deliberations, Disruption, Enterprise Applications, Enterprise Resource Planning, Erp System, Erp Systems, Existing System, Fundamental Reasons, Group Reports, High Risk, Proliferation, Rationalisation, Reputation, Size Matters, Software Erp, Technology Investment |
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Now that recession became reality, software development professionals must show their best game every time – just to keep their jobs. They also need to learn some new techniques if they planning on winning. Budgets and time lines of IT projects are shrinking by a minute yet quality software is required more often than before.
“When a software development effort goes awry, people are quick to blame software design, requirements management or project process. What almost always overlooked is the human aspect that software developers are bringing into the picture”, says Dmitri Khanine, nation’s leading authority on troubled projects.
Dmitri’s revolutionary Software Project Success course holds a great promise to the industry. He is about to show you how almost every project can be recovered in 30 days or less.
These mistakes cost time, money or, in the worst case, entire projects. Here are 7 common, but easily avoidable mistakes that make a software project disaster just about a sure thing:
Mistake #1: Ignoring the people aspect of a project. This is where the single biggest breakthrough in project process success rates is happening yet millions of professionals are still shocked to find out
Mistake #2: Ignoring management training can seriously damage your software process. Paying attention to it can help your team deliver quality software on time and on budget – time and time again.
Mistake #3: Believing that software architecture should or even can drive a project. This is a fatal mistake. Software architecture is a medium where business vision is realized. The reverse is also true. When management team fails to understand the core architecture principles – they force ineffective decisions or have no choice but to abdicate control to their technical team – just to see their vision distorted in translation.
Mistake #4: Believing that someone can supply capable and productive software developers for your project. The truth is – you have to do your own hiring to achieve best results. Most recruiters don’t go much further then reading resumes and asking candidates about their years of experience.
Mistake #5: Believing that simply asking your candidates a bunch of technical and behavioral questions makes up a good interview. Not only this “spontaneous” approach is unreliable – it makes you waste many hours you could’ve used for project delivery.
Mistake #6: Ignoring the most common ways requirements management kills projects and what teams can do about it. The key here is having the entire team understand them. Not only developers and architects but also the management team need to become familiar with the core principles of requirement management and its biggest pitfalls.
Mistake #7: Ignoring the biggest application software development disaster and its effects that sabotage any methodology. The biggest disaster is not the lack of methodology or an unresolved technology issue. The biggest threat – once again – comes from a human aspect of software development, people’s believes and emotions. Project teams need to understand its warning signs and have their act together.
By: Dmitri Khanine
About the Author:
“When a software development effort goes awry, people are quick to blame software design, requirements management or project process. What almost always overlooked is the human aspect that software developers are bringing into the picture”, says Dmitri Khanine, nation’s leading authority on troubled projects.
Dmitri’s revolutionary Software Project Success course holds a great promise to the industry. He is about to show you how almost every project can be recovered in 30 days or less.
These mistakes cost time, money or, in the worst case, entire projects. Here are 7 common, but easily avoidable mistakes that make a software project disaster just about a sure thing:
Mistake #1: Ignoring the people aspect of a project. This is where the single biggest breakthrough in project process success rates is happening yet millions of professionals are still shocked to find out
Mistake #2: Ignoring management training can seriously damage your software process. Paying attention to it can help your team deliver quality software on time and on budget – time and time again.
Mistake #3: Believing that software architecture should or even can drive a project. This is a fatal mistake. Software architecture is a medium where business vision is realized. The reverse is also true. When management team fails to understand the core architecture principles – they force ineffective decisions or have no choice but to abdicate control to their technical team – just to see their vision distorted in translation.
Mistake #4: Believing that someone can supply capable and productive software developers for your project. The truth is – you have to do your own hiring to achieve best results. Most recruiters don’t go much further then reading resumes and asking candidates about their years of experience.
Mistake #5: Believing that simply asking your candidates a bunch of technical and behavioral questions makes up a good interview. Not only this “spontaneous” approach is unreliable – it makes you waste many hours you could’ve used for project delivery.
Mistake #6: Ignoring the most common ways requirements management kills projects and what teams can do about it. The key here is having the entire team understand them. Not only developers and architects but also the management team need to become familiar with the core principles of requirement management and its biggest pitfalls.
Mistake #7: Ignoring the biggest application software development disaster and its effects that sabotage any methodology. The biggest disaster is not the lack of methodology or an unresolved technology issue. The biggest threat – once again – comes from a human aspect of software development, people’s believes and emotions. Project teams need to understand its warning signs and have their act together.
By: Dmitri Khanine
About the Author:
Now that you know the mistakes, how many of them are you making? Are you still blaming project process issues on software design? Is your software development effort on track? Be sure to consider management training before you run out of time.
Justin Gate
Posted in Computers |
Tags: Avoidable Mistakes, Best Game, Budget Time, Business Vision, Core Architecture, Fatal Mistake, Human Aspect, Leading Authority, Project Disaster, Reality Software, Requirements Management, Revolutionary Software, Software Architecture, Software Developers, Software Development Effort, Software Development Professionals, Software Project Success, Success Course, Success Rates, Troubled Projects |
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