SPaMCAST 84 - Valerdi, Change and Estimation, Outsourcing

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 84! The interview in the SPaMCAST 84 is with Ricardo Valerdi.  We discussed software cost estimation and behavioral economics.  This was a great interview that anyone working in the IT field will find immediately useful and thought provoking in the long term. Dr. Valerdi's current research interests include systems engineering cost estimation, system level metrics and models, dynamics in large-scale government system acquisition, and system-of-systems ontologies. His contributions to the field include the Constructive Systems Engineering Cost Model (COSYSMO), a model for estimating systems engineering effort, which has been calibrated with data provided by BAE Systems, Boeing, General Dynamics, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and SAIC. He is also the co-founder of the Systems Engineering Advancement Research Initiative (SEAri), which was launched in 2007. He received his B.S./B.A. in electrical engineering from the University of San Diego in 1999, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in systems architecting and engineering from USC in 2002 and 2005. Between 1999 and 2002, he worked as a systems engineer at Motorola where he was responsible for the design and implementation of mission critical public safety communications systems for clients such as the Los Angeles Police Department, Orange County Sheriff, and San Diego Police Department. He has been affiliated with The Aerospace Corporation's Economic and Market Analysis Center as a member of the technical staff since 2003 and he supports cost analysis of programs for the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center at the Los Angeles Air Force Base. Dr. Valerdi is the author of more than 45 technical publications for IEEE, AIAA, and INCOSE conferences. His work has appeared in several journals, including Journal of Systems Engineering, Journal of Systems and Software, and CrossTalk - The Journal of Defense Software Engineering. He has also served as a reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management and IEEE Software. He served as program chair of the 20th Forum on COCOMO and Software Cost Modeling and is involved with INCOSE in the Measurement Working Group, the Systems Engineering and Architecting Doctoral Student Network, and since 2007 has served on the Board of Directors as associate director for international growth. He is a visiting associate at the Center for Systems & Software Engineering at USC. Contact information:Email:      Website:   Remember to check out ! The essay is titled Outsourcing:  Metrics and Governance.  The essay  discusses why it is important to get the link between metrics and governance right in outsourcing contracts.  It goes on to stress why it is important to engage process and metrics experts when negotiating the linkages.  One of the new features you will notice in SPaMCAST 84 is an ad.  I do not take adding ads lightly  but have decide to occasionally run ads to help defray the cost of hosting, bandwidth and equipment.  When I do run ads I will only run those I feel comfortable with.  Let me know your thoughts on the matter. Contact information for the Software Process and Measurement Cast Email:  Voicemail:  +1-206-888-6111 Website: Twitter: Facebook:  Conferences and Speaking Engagements in 2010 (To Date)   ISMA Cinco in São Paulo September 13-15.  I will be one of the featured speakers.  More on the topic the near future.  The website to get more information is  I hope to see you there! Next! The interview in the SPaMCAST 85 is with Cory Foy.  We talked agile and agile coaching.  Whether you are using SCRUM, xP or any software development methodology I think you will have a lot to think about after listening to Cory.