On Oct. 2, 11:00 AM EST, QSM's Phil Armour will present "A Practical Approach to Measuring Software Development Productivity" as part of the ITMPI Webinar Series. 

Most measurements in software development are notoriously difficult and assessing productivity is no exception. There are an enormous number of factors that could or do affect productivity, and it is challenging to identify and characterize what they might be. The effort involved often deters organizations from even attempting to quantify how effective they are at building systems. This webinar will present a useful and practical approach to productivity measurement based on a mathematical model of systems development and over thirty years of research. It will also describe the core mathematical functions that relate to the major attributes of systems development, show how a useful productivity metric can be calculated from project history, and demonstrate how QSM’s database of over 10,000 projects support this view of software development productivity.

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If you were unable to attend "Building an Estimation Center of Excellence," the webinar replay and slides are now available. Here are the Q&A highlights:

How do you handle estimating change requests (scope creep). Do you estimate the entire project again, or do you just estimate the impact of the change requests?

It would depend on where we were in the project lifecycle. If we were still fairly early on (somewhere between the feasibility assessment and the refined estimate), I would add those into my sizing assumptions and re-estimate the project. If I'm already farther along and I get changes when I'm already constructing the system, then I would use my adaptive forecasting and add those in within the context of everything else I have to build as part of the deliverable release. This is because the impact will be bigger if we're farther along and we already have everything integrated and we're into testing versus earlier on when not a lot has been constructed. QSM's forecasting capabilities will be able to tell us the impact on schedule and cost.

Should the center of excellence estimate all projects regardless of size, or if the project is small, then have the project teams estimate it?

On Thursday, June 13, at 1:00 PM EDT, Larry Putnam, Jr. will present Building an Estimation Center of Excellence.

The pressure to succeed in software development is higher than ever - the current economic climate demands we do more with less, there is fierce global and domestic competition, time-to-market expectations are high, and your company's reputation is on the line. When projects fail, the failure to meet expectations is more often an estimation or business decision failure than a production or execution issue. In this webinar, industry expert Larry Putnam, Jr. takes you through the key elements and step-by-step process for setting up an estimation center of excellence that will ensure your projects succeed.

Larry Putnam, Jr. has 25 years of experience using the Putnam-SLIM Methodology. He has participated in hundreds of estimation and oversight service engagements, and is responsible for product management of the SLIM Suite of software measurement tools and customer care programs. Since becoming Co-CEO, Larry has built QSM's capabilities in sales, customer support, product requirements and most recently in creating a world class consulting organization. Larry has delivered numerous speeches at conferences on software estimation and measurement, and has trained - over a five-year period - more than 1,000 software professionals on industry best practice measurement, estimation and control techniques and in the use of the SLIM Suite.

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If you were unable to attend our recent webinar, Using Benchmarking to Quantify the Benefits of Process Improvement, a replay is now available.

With increasing pressure to improve quality while cutting costs, process improvement is a top priority for many organizations right now; but once we've implemented a process improvement initiative, how do we accurately measure the benefits? Benchmarking is critical to determining the success of any serious process improvement program. As with any type of measurement program, it requires an initial reference point to measure progress. To set our point of comparison, we first need to perform a benchmark on a contemporary sample of projects that are representative of the typical work that we do. In this webinar, industry expert Larry Putnam, Jr. will take you through the necessary steps to perform a successful benchmark - from collecting quantitative and qualitative data to establish the initial baseline benchmark all the way through to performing follow up benchmarks on new projects and process improvement analysis.

Larry Putnam, Jr. has 25 years of experience using the Putnam-SLIM Methodology. He has participated in hundreds of estimation and oversight service engagements, and is responsible for product management of the SLIM Suite of software measurement tools and customer care programs.

Watch the webinar replay!

On Thursday, Feb. 7, at 1:00 PM EST, Larry Putnam, Jr. will present Using Benchmarking to Quantify the Benefits of Process Improvement.

With increasing pressure to improve quality while cutting costs, process improvement is a top priority for many organizations right now; but once we've implemented a process improvement initiative, how do we accurately measure the benefits? Benchmarking is critical to determining the success of any serious process improvement program. As with any type of measurement program, it requires an initial reference point to measure progress. To set our point of comparison, we first need to perform a benchmark on a contemporary sample of projects that are representative of the typical work that we do. In this webinar, industry expert Larry Putnam, Jr. will take you through the necessary steps to perform a successful benchmark - from collecting quantitative and qualitative data to establish the initial baseline benchmark all the way through to performing follow up benchmarks on new projects and process improvement analysis.

Larry Putnam, Jr. has 25 years of experience using the Putnam-SLIM Methodology. He has participated in hundreds of estimation and oversight service engagements, and is responsible for product management of the SLIM Suite of software measurement tools and customer care programs. Since becoming Co-CEO, Larry has built QSM's capabilities in sales, customer support, product requirements and most recently in creating a world class consulting organization. Larry has delivered numerous speeches at conferences on software estimation and measurement, and has trained - over a five-year period - more than 1,000 software professionals on industry best practice measurement, estimation and control techniques and in the use of the SLIM Suite.

Last Thursday, I hosted a webinar introducing our new, cloud-based estimation tool, SLIM-WebServices (watch the replay here). The Q&A portion of the presentation, which was fielded by both Larry Putnam, Jr. and myself, featured some great questions from the audience about the new tool's capabilities. Here are the highlights:

How will this work with the desktop version? Do they work together or separately?

Either way. The web version comes with enough information to work as a standalone. If you want more configuration capability, then you’ll want to have the desktop products and you can have a power user creating templates for the web version.

How do I use SLIM-WebServices if I don’t have the desktop tools?

You can have QSM create the templates for you on a consulting basis if you don’t have the desktop tools. SLIM-WebServices also includes standard templates representing multiple lifecycles that you can download very easily. However, any customization would need to be done with the desktop tools or with QSM Consulting.

Can we have a company-specific estimation database so that users can select from previous estimates?

On Thursday, Nov. 8 at 1:00 PM EST, I will present SLIM-WebServices: Project Estimation Goes Global - a webinar showcasing our new, web-based estimation and measurement tool. I'm looking forward to demonstrating how this powerful, yet easy-to-use tool can be leveraged by both non-technical users and estimation experts alike to share project estimation intelligence across the entire enterprise.

For too long, project estimation intelligence has been confined to a niche group, making it difficult for business stakeholders and decision makers to get critical project planning information when they need it. Introducing SLIM-WebServices from QSM - the lighter, leaner, liberated way to share the power of SLIM with an entire enterprise. With this new cloud-based tool, we are empowering more people in more positions at more places in an enterprise - improving visibility, transparency and informed decision making. Ultimately, this is an organization's best defense against cost overruns, schedule slippages, and failed implementations. Presented by QSM Marketing Manager, Elisabeth Pendergrass, this webinar gives an overview and live demonstration of SLIM-WebServices. 

As Marketing Manager at QSM, Elisabeth Pendergrass has over 7 years of experience working in software and technology marketing. Her responsibilities at QSM include website and search engine marketing, organizing in-house and joint webinars, social media, creating marketing materials for new product offerings, and managing PR efforts. 

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If you were unable to attend our recent webinar, Using Function Points and SLIM to Support a Complete Estimation Process, a replay is now available.

How can project managers use their Function Point history to improve the way they estimate their projects? Leveraging historical data to generate and sanity check macro-level estimates early in the project lifecycle can save thousands of dollars in planning time and prevent signing up to unrealistic project schedules and budgets. Now that we've learned the basics of estimating before requirements, Keith Ciocco demonstrates how to use industry data and Function Point history with the SLIM Suite of Tools for a more mature estimation process. 

As Vice President of QSM, Keith has more than 25 years of experience working in sales and customer service, with 17 of those years spent at QSM. Keith’s primary responsibilities include managing business development, existing client relations, customer retention and response. 

Watch the webinar replay!

On Thursday, June 28 at 1:00 PM EDT, QSM's Keith Ciocco will present Using Function Points and SLIM to Support a Complete Estimation Process.

How can project managers use their Function Point history to improve the way they estimate their projects? Leveraging historical data to generate and sanity check macro-level estimates early in the project lifecycle can save thousands of dollars in planning time and prevent signing up to unrealistic project schedules and budgets. Now that we've learned the basics of estimating before requirements, Keith Ciocco demonstrates how to use industry data and Function Point history with the SLIM Suite of Tools for a more mature estimation process. 

As Vice President of QSM, Keith has more than 25 years of experience working in sales and customer service, with 17 of those years spent at QSM. Keith’s primary responsibilities include managing business development, existing client relations, customer retention and response. 

Watch the replay of this webinar!