SMS Exemplar

Papers

• 201110 An Agile Approach to Software Contracts

  Grant Rule considers how output based contracts support transparency and trust in outsourced partnerships.

• 201109 Using Models and Standards

  An article for Methods and Tools magazine on how to make best use of quality and improvement models, standards and frameworks. The map is not the territory!

• 201101 All You Wanted to Know About Software Measurement

  An SMS guide to the uses and benefits of functional size measurement, including a comparison of the main FSM methods and tips on good estimating practice.

• 201010 The Marshall Model of Organisational Evolution (pub 2010)

  In order to improve effectiveness it is necessary to understand the environment you are starting from and where you are trying to go. This paper offers insights into ways of thinking and behaving associated with success.

• 201010 SMS Partners with the NCC to deliver the IT Department Accreditation

  Welcoming SMS to the NCC’s ITDA team, the NCC’s Managing Director, Steve Fox, said: "We are delighted to welcome SMS as a partner for the IT Department business improvement and Accreditation service (ITDA). SMS' extensive experience in performance measurement will be a great asset in taking the ITDA scheme forward."

• 201010 Lean Enterprise Architecture: Making the Change

  Market leaders predictably deliver what their customers want ten times faster and eight times cheaper than "the norm". Sue Rule looks at what makes the difference.

• 201007 How to Win Hearts & Minds For Your Next Change Programme (pub 2010)

  Many enterprising software professionals recognise the opportunity for doing things more effectively. Many more express the opinion, "things can't go on like this". If this rings a bell with you, this paper offers some insights into how to communicate the opportunity and enthusiase your colleagues and bosses with a will to change.

• 201006 Components of a well-formed User Story (pub 2010)

  Using requirements development good practice for writing of User Story Cards provides developers and product owners with a simple means to improve the understandability of each story. Increasing the understandability will reduce re-work which will concomitantly increase productivity and velocity and reduce defect density, etc.

• 201005 Sizing User Stories with COSMIC (pub 2010)

  Incorporating the COSMIC software sizing method into the use of User Story Cards gives developers and product owners a quick and simple measure of development output. This can be combined with other measurements to determine metrics such as productivity, velocity and defect density.

• 201001 Lean Enterprise Architecture (Pub 2010)

  There’s an elephantine gulf between the potential of the software creative process and the effective delivery of value to business users and customers. recognising

• 200908 Effective Project Management (pub 2009)

  Alison Marsden takes a practical look at what we mean by effective project management, and how to achieve it.

• 200810 Are all executives unethical? Doing the right thing - the moral case for Rightshifting (pub 2008)

  Bob Marshall argues that, in the absence of objective evidence, it’s simply unethical for executives to believe that product and software development in their organisations is reasonably effective.

• 200805 Delivering ROI on Software Process Improvement (pub 2008)

  To really deliver better value from IT, the core process to address is the basic business model itself – how both parties negotiate and manage projects to mutual advantage.

• 200801 Measurement for Automotive SPICE (pub 2008)

  Many factors concur to make modern day cars more complex and Automotive SPICE provides a useful framework for assessing the capability of the automotive suppliers. As with any quality improvement programme, measurement is at the core of Automotive SPICE.

• 200711 Painting by numbers: Using visible measures for lean management (pub 2007)

  Lean processes cannot be implemented effectively without judicious use of objective measures, visible to the creative and customer-facing staff.

• 200706 Risk and the CMMI (pub 2007)

  Managing project risk is about identifying and mitigating both the known and unknown threats to performance.

• 200703 Delivering Value from Outsourcing (pub 2007)

  Professional software supply companies, whose core competencies include the exploitation of IT, should be able to run projects more predictably and cost effectively than an organisation's in-house staff. So why is it the newspapers still report major software disasters?

• 200701 Output Based Contract Management (pub 2007)

  Considering performance measures and the quality of the relationship as the primary management tools in outsourcing partnerships.

• 200612 Sizing software by counting 1-2-3 (pub 2006)

  Studies have shown that the sizes of software that has relatively simple elementary processes measured by both the IFPUG and the COSMIC-FFP methods correlate quite well. But as the average size of processes increases, the fact that the IFPUG measurement scale suddenly stops causes serious distortions. Charles Symons argues the case for the change to COSMIC for performance measurement or estimating for software with larger, complex transactions.

• 200612 Engaging Middle Managers (pub 2006)

  Achieving buy-in from middle management is crucial for achieving a successful transformation of the software process. Jill Pritchet looks at effective ways of overcoming barriers to change, both real and perceived.

• 200612 Benefits of Credible Metrics (pub 2006)

  Managing software activities without proper metrics to support decision-making is not much better than guesswork. COSMIC supports the effective and professional management of any software metrics programme.

• 200606 A CAI State of the Practice Interview with Charles Symons (pub 2006)

  This interview between Charles Symons and Michael Milutis, Executive Director of the IT Metrics and Productivity Institute, was conducted in June of 2006.

• 200510 The End of Software Engineering in the West (pub 2005)

  In the UKSMA Ian Drummond Memorial Lecture of 2005, Tony Rollo considered the dangers of failing to learn the lesson that industries survive by focussing on quality, quality - and price.

• 200509 ISBSG Standard Benchmarking Process (pub 2005)

  ISBSG Standard for Benchmarking is based upon the ISO 15939 Standard for Software Measurement. This presentation outlines the perceived reasons for such a standard.

• 200501 Rules Relative Size Scale (pub 2005)

  Using a simple "small-medium-large" scale for estimating project size enables early and accurate prediction of the cost, effort and viability of a proposed project.