How successful are software projects today? To find out, you may want to ask your favorite AI agent. I asked Copilot to provide statistics on software project schedule, effort, and cost outcomes compared to plans.

The accuracy of these numbers may be questionable, but the overall message is not. Software project cost and schedule overruns abound! Measuring software size throughout the software project lifecycle provides the insights you need to reduce risk and improve software project success.

Up to this point in our Software Size Matters video series, we have covered the benefits of quantifying software size and presented sizing metrics and methods that fit the type of software development work you do. In this episode, we present examples of how to apply these concepts throughout the project lifecycle.

Quantifying software size is an important best practice for each of the three major project stages:

You may wonder, like I do, if companies are still planning cloud migration initiatives in 2025 and the near future.  A quick internet search says “Yes.” Cloud migration is still ongoing and has even accelerated, with many organizations moving more applications to the cloud and embracing hybrid or multi-cloud strategies. While some companies are finishing their initial migrations, many others are in the process of starting new migrations.

The benefits of cloud migration are numerous, fueling the expected growth of the industry.  There are many cloud migration ROI “calculators” provided by major cloud platforms and solution providers that help you account for hard and soft costs, such as Amdocs, Evaluating the ROI of Cloud Migration. But few, if any, help you estimate the labor cost required to make software applications operational in a cloud environment. If your software cost estimates are too low, then your cloud migration ROI is too optimistic.

You intuitively know that the scope of your software development project determines your team size, schedule, and budget. How do you measure software project scope, especially when you don’t have much information to go on?

Episode 3: Sizing Terms & Metrics is part of our Software Size Matters video series that explores how you not only can, but should be using software size measures at every stage of software project, program, and portfolio management. In Episode 1, we introduced QSM's Software Lifecycle Management top-down scope-based project estimating simulation model. In Episode 2, we explained why quantifying software size is so important. In this episode, we'll discuss sizing terms and metrics you're likely familiar with and already using.

Watch Episode 3: Sizing Terms & Metrics

Size is one of Five Core Metrics used to understand and manage software projects.

In today's world, Data Analytics is everywhere helping us recognize patterns and trends, providing insights, and driving business decisions. Software engineers, cost analysts, and project and portfolio managers need data to:

• Sanity check vendor bids
• Prioritize software projects with the highest ROI or to achieve strategic goals
• Secure resources for projects in their pipeline
• Calculate and benchmark productivity and capacity
• Create realistic estimates and plans for new projects.

So ensuring your data is valid and relevant is crucial.

Episode 2: Why Quantify Software Size? is part of our video series, Software Size Matters! Why Quantifying Software Size is Critical for Project Estimating, Tracking, and Performance Benchmarking, that explores how you not only can but should be using software size measures at every stage of the software project, program, or portfolio management process. In this episode, we'll talk about how to keep your measurement process simple and useful and show key software project performance insights gained from software size.

Watch Episode 2: Why Quantify Software Size?

Our new video series, Software Size Matters! Why Quantifying Software Size is Critical for Project Estimating, Tracking, and Performance Benchmarking, explores how you not only can but should be using software size measures at every stage of the software project, program, or portfolio management process. We created this video series to help you improve the accuracy of your software estimates, plans and forecasts because software size matters. 

The core management metrics used for software estimation and software project management - schedule (duration), effort (cost), quality (defects) and developer productivity - all increase with software size (scope).  This may not surprise you. But did you know that they increase in a nonlinear fashion?  This is why estimating and managing software projects is challenging!

How good are your software project estimates compared to the actual time and money spent when the project's completed? If you want to improve your software estimation accuracy, this video series is for you!

Watch Episode 1: Introduction

Quantifying software size helps you with:

How many times have you been involved with a software project or a portfolio of projects where the schedule or budget is doomed from the start? It happens all the time. One of the best ways to avoid this problem is to leverage historical data – actual performance of completed software projects. QSM has over 46 years experience in software estimation and control. We have seen thousands of projects and products delivered, both in-house and vendor driven. One of the biggest problems we help our clients solve is negotiating the right cost and schedule targets. Whether advising a client on an in-house project, a vendor on their proposal, or an end user with a bid evaluation decision, one thing becomes very clear − all sides are trying to negotiate a cost and timeline that they feel comfortable with. The problem is that they often negotiate with little to no data of past performance.

Negotiating Initial Schedule and Budget Commitments

You don't need data from hundreds of projects, and it doesn’t need to be granular. Software project or release level data is a great place to start. It establishes a baseline that you can count on because the delivery targets have been achieved in the past. It is tough to argue with cost and schedule numbers that have already been proven, and of course, having the data at your fingertips gives you a leg to stand on when negotiating.

The best practice we recommend is to capture a few core metrics: