Software Process and Measurement Cast

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 104. SPaMCAST 104  features my interview with Nigel Green coauthor of .  Nigel provides insights that suggests a new path for projects that focuses on the human dimensions of change.Nigel Green is an business change consultant, IS advisor and author who specialises in the conception, management and delivery of business-led IT solutions. He is fascinated by two things: the way people actually use IT and how well IT reflects real-world behaviour. His list of favourite authors hints at his values: philosophers, economists, architects, physicists, anthropologists, entrepreneurs, technologists and systems theory thought leaders are on that list. A business/IT translator for over 25 years, Nigel specializes in large organizations with complex and distributed operating models. website : Twitter: Ad for my book! co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing has hit the bookshelves!  According to Robert C. Anderson, Director, Process Development and Quality Assurance, Computer Aid, Inc, "Mastering Software Project Management is a masterpiece of clarity, organization and depth of practical knowledge." If you a project manager or know project managers buy yourself a copy and a second to lend co-workers! Have you bought your copy? Contact information for the Software Process and Measurement CastEmail:  Voicemail:  +1-206-888-6111Website: Twitter: Facebook:  Next!SPaMCAST 105 will feature the fourth installment of the Seven Deadly Sins of Measurement Programs essay.  It is time for RAGE!!!!!!

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 103. SPaMCAST 103 will feature the third installment of the Seven Deadly Sins of Measurement Programs essay.  Sloth plagues many measurement programs as they age.  As time goes by, it is easy for practitioners to drift away from the passionate pursuit of data to transform into knowledge. Sloth in measurement programs is typically not caused by laziness.  In this essay we explore the reasons for apparent sloth and how to conquer those problems. Note based on a comment by @The0retico on Twitter I have shortened the intro and will work on shortening the extro section.  This week we have have comment by Royce Edwards after the essay.  Ad for my book! co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing has hit the bookshelves!  According to Robert C. Anderson, Director, Process Development and Quality Assurance, Computer Aid, Inc, "Mastering Software Project Management is a masterpiece of clarity, organization and depth of practical knowledge." If you a project manager or know project managers buy yourself a copy and a second to lend co-workers!Have you bought your copy?  Contact information for the Software Process and Measurement CastEmail:  Voicemail:  +1-206-888-6111Website: Twitter: Facebook:  Next!SPaMCAST 104 will feature my interview with Nigel Green coauthor of Lost In Translation.  Nigel provides insights that suggests a new path for projects that focuses on the human dimensions of change.

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 102. SPaMCAST 102 features my interview with Anita Cassidy.  We discussed her book "A Practical Guide to Information Systems Strategic Planning" along with how to improve value and performance of IT! Anita Cassidy is owner and partner of ITDirections ( ), a technology consulting organization focused on the areas of strategic planning, assessments, software selection, contract negotiation, process improvement, coaching and temporary CIO. With over 30 years experience in IT, Anita has a reputation in the industry as a trusted advisor, consultant, and executive coach who has a true passion and track-record for making a difference. Anita is a nationally recognized industry leader in strategic planning and has published five books, including a best-seller titled (Taylor & Francis Group). Her latest book, published in 2010 was titled "" (JRoss Publishing). As an accomplished facilitator, instructor, presenter, and industry expert, she has been a speaker at many national events and conferences, quoted in various articles and magazines, and served as a technology advisor and industry authority. Anita has held the CIO, VP, and top IT positions in worldwide companies such as Fisher-Rosemount (a division of Emerson Electric), Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur (Beckman Coulter), and Graco. Anita is also an adjunct professor co-teaching an Engineering IT masters course at St. Thomas University.  Ms. Cassidy holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management with MIS emphasis from the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management. Ad for my book! co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing has hit the bookshelves!  According to Robert C. Anderson, Director, Process Development and Quality Assurance, Computer Aid, Inc, "Mastering Software Project Management is a masterpiece of clarity, organization and depth of practical knowledge." If you a project manager or know project managers buy yourself a copy and a second to lend co-workers!Have you bought your copy? Contact information for the Software Process and Measurement CastEmail:  Voicemail:  +1-206-888-6111Website: Twitter: Facebook:  Conferences and Speaking Engagements in 2010 (To Date)October 7th 11:00 - 12:30 Webinar: Functional Metrics and Agile Estimation, RevisitedRegister here! Synopsis - Estimation is a lightning rod for conflicts between agile and process driven methodologies. However, times are changing, and agile is maturing.  Part of the process of maturing is the incorporation of best practices from other methods and frameworks.  In this webinar, Tom Cagley will explain how functional metrics allow you to incorporate additional process discipline into the estimation processes typically used by agile teams. Next!SPaMCAST 103 will feature the thirds installment of the Seven Deadly Sins of Measurement Programs essay.  We take on sloth, really this time!

SPaMCAST 101 features the second part of my Seven Deadly Sins of Measurement Programs essay.  In this installment we focus on gluttony.  I jumped over sloth as I decided it needed a rewrite (no sloth here!). Citrix GoToAssist Express is sponsoring SPaMCAST Solve technical issues faster with GoToAssist Express. Ad for my book! co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing has hit the bookshelves!  According to Robert C. Anderson, Director, Process Development and Quality Assurance, Computer Aid, Inc, "Mastering Software Project Management is a masterpiece of clarity, organization and depth of practical knowledge." If you a project manager or know project managers buy yourself a copy and a second to lend co-workers! Have you bought your copy? Contact information for the Software Process and Measurement CastEmail:  Voicemail:  +1-206-888-6111Website: Twitter: Facebook:  Conferences and Speaking Engagements in 2010 (To Date) October 7th 11:00 - 12:30 Webinar: Functional Metrics and Agile Estimation, Revisited Estimation is a lightening rod for conflicts between agile and process driven methodologies. However, times are changing, and agile is maturing.  Part of the process of maturing is the incorporation of best practices from other methods and frameworks.  In this webinar, Tom Cagley will explain how functional metrics allow you to incorporate additional process discipline into the estimation processes typically used by agile teams. Next!SPaMCAST 102 features my interview with Anita Cassidy.  We discussed her book "A Practical Guide to Information Systems Strategic Planning" along with how to improve value and performance of IT!

SPaMCAST 100 . . . YES 100 features an interview with Chris Hefley  Chris and I discussed Kanban.  This is an interview that will help novices and those experienced with Kanban.  Paul Laberge asked for an interview on the nuts and bolts of Kanban and I think we have delivered. Chris Hefley is the CEO and co founder of Bandit Software. Bandit Software is a Nasvhille, TN based company that specializes in tools for Kanban and Lean Software Development, as well as training, coaching, consulting and lean outsourcing. Chris is a career software developer and aspiring craftsman, and has a deep interest in things that can help software developers be more productive, effective, and happy. Citrix GoToAssist Express is sponsoring SPaMCAST Solve technical issues faster with GoToAssist Express. Ad for my book! Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing has hit the bookshelves!  According to Robert C. Anderson, Director, Process Development and Quality Assurance, Computer Aid, Inc, "Mastering Software Project Management is a masterpiece of clarity, organization and depth of practical knowledge." If you a project manager or know project managers buy yourself a copy and a second to lend co-workers! Have you bought your copy? Contact information for the Software Process and Measurement CastEmail:  Voicemail:  +1-206-888-6111Website: Twitter: Facebook:  Conferences and Speaking Engagements in 2010 (To Date) ISMA Cinco in Sao Paulo September 13-15.  I will be one of the featured speakers.  THe title of the presentation is Function Points:  Past, Present and Future.  The website to get more information is   I hope to see you there! Next!SPaMCAST 101 will feature the second part of the Seven Deadly Sins essay.  We take on solth next!

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 99! The Seven Deadly Sins popularized by Dante have been used as an analogy for a fallen man’s tendency to sin and as analogy for the ills or risks of many professions.  The analogy fits as well for software metrics; focusing attention on the behaviors that could sap your program’s integrity, effectiveness and life span. This paper looks at a set of deadly sins from the point of view of a person or group that is creating or managing a metrics program.  The preamble . . . The Seven Deadly Sins of Metrics Programs: Pride – Believing that a single number / metric is more important than any other factor. Envy – Instituting measures that facilitate the insatiable desire for another team’s people, tools or applications. Wrath – Using measures to create friction between groups or teams. Sloth – Unwillingness to act or care about the measures you create. Greed – Allowing metrics to be used as a tool to game the system for gain. Gluttony – Collecting data for data's sake. Lust (Extravagance) – Pursuit of the number rather than the business goal. The impact each sin on a metrics program depends on many factors ranging from management style to organizaional culture.  An example can be seen when comparing the belief that one number is more important than all other factors (always) which illustrates the sin of pride compared to the lack of motivation illustrated by sloth.  These are two very different issues with two very different impacts however neither should be sneezed at if you value the long term health of a metrics program. Citrix GoToAssist Express is sponsoring SPaMCAST Solve technical issues faster with GoToAssist Express. Ad for my book! Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing has hit the bookshelves!  According to Robert C. Anderson, Director, Process Development and Quality Assurance, Computer Aid, Inc, "Mastering Software Project Management is a masterpiece of clarity, organization and depth of practical knowledge." If you a project manager or know project managers buy yourself a copy and a second to lend co-workers! Contact information for the Software Process and Measurement CastEmail:  Voicemail:  +1-206-888-6111Website: Twitter: Facebook:  Conferences and Speaking Engagements in 2010 (To Date) ISMA Cinco in Sao Paulo September 13-15.  I will be one of the featured speakers.  THe title of the presentation is Function Points:  Past, Present and Future.  The website to get more information is   I hope to see you there! Next!SPaMCAST 99 will feature an interview with Chris Hefley  Chris and I discussed Kanban.  Paul Laberge asked for an interview on the nuts and bolts of Kanban and I think we have delivered.

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 98! The Software Process and Measurement Cast this week features an in interview with Richard Soley.  The interview with Richard wraps up my interviews with the troika of luminaries that are leading the SEMAT initiative.  Richard provides a great wrap up on the goals, benefits and ideas that define SEMAT. Dr. Richard Mark Soley is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of OMG TM. As Chairman and CEO of OMG, Dr. Soley is responsible for the vision and direction of the world's largest consortium of its type. Dr. Soley joined the nascent OMG as Technical Director in 1989, leading the development of OMG's world-leading standardization process and the original CORBA® specification. In 1996, he led the effort to move into vertical market standards (starting with healthcare, finance, telecommunications and manufacturing) and modeling, leading first to the Unified Modeling Language TM (UML®) and later the Model Driven Architecture® (MDA®). He also led the effort to establish the SOA Consortium in January 2007, leading to the launch of the Business Ecology Initiative (BEI) in 2009. The Initiative now includes Communities of Practice focused on the adoption of BPM and SOA, Green Computing, Event Processing and Cyber Security.    Previously, Dr. Soley was a cofounder and former Chairman/CEO of A. I. Architects, Inc., maker of the 386 HummingBoard and other PC and workstation hardware and software. Prior to that, he consulted for various technology companies and venture firms on matters pertaining to software investment opportunities. Dr. Soley has also consulted for IBM, Motorola, PictureTel, Texas Instruments, Gold Hill Computer and others. He began his professional life at Honeywell Computer Systems working on the Multics operating system. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A., Dr. Soley holds bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Object Management Group's Website:  Citrix GoToAssist Express is sponsoring SPaMCAST Solve technical issues faster with GoToAssist Express. Ad for my book! Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing has hit the bookshelves!  According to Robert C. Anderson, Director, Process Development and Quality Assurance, Computer Aid, Inc, "Mastering Software Project Management is a masterpiece of clarity, organization and depth of practical knowledge." If you a project manager or know project managers buy yourself a copy and a second to lend co-workers!  Contact information for the Software Process and Measurement CastEmail:  Voicemail:  +1-206-888-6111Website: Twitter: Facebook:  Conferences and Speaking Engagements in 2010 (To Date)ISMA Cinco in Sao Paulo September 13-15.  I will be one of the featured speakers.  THe title of the presentation is Function Points:  Past, Present and Future.  The website to get more information is   I hope to see you there! Next!SPaMCAST 99 we will feature an essay on measuring IT development capacity at a department level.

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 97! Software Process and Measurement Cast features an essay on time-to-market which is an excerpt from a new writing project I am calling The Metrics Minute.  You will see more essays from this project in the future and a call to action. The first few lines . . . Time-to-market (TTM) is a measure of the calendar duration of a project.  Calendar time  is the granddaddy of all measures of project performance.  The popularity of the measure is driven by its ease of calculation as by definition all projects have a start date and every day that goes by adds one to day to the duration of the project and brings you one day closer to both the predicted and eventual end of the project. Time to market because it's simplicity has a great deal of allure however because of it simplicity it has very little explanatory power. Calendar time is a metric that everyone can understand in theory however how long is too long or why one project takes longer than another can only be answered by making a comparison to something else. Citrix GoToAssist Express is sponsoring SPaMCAST Solve technical issues faster with GoToAssist Express. Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing has hit the bookshelves!  According to Robert C. Anderson, Director, Process Development and Quality Assurance, Computer Aid, Inc, "Mastering Software Project Management is a masterpiece of clarity, organization and depth of practical knowledge." If you a project manager or know project managers buy yourself a copy and a second to lend co-workers! Contact information for the Software Process and Measurement CastEmail:  Voicemail:  +1-206-888-6111Website: Twitter: Facebook:  Conferences and Speaking Engagements in 2010 (To Date)ISMA Cinco in Sao Paulo September 13-15.  I will be one of the featured speakers.  The title of the presentation is Function Points:  Past, Present and Future.  The website to get more information is   I hope to see you there! Next!SPaMCAST 98 will return to the SEMAT Troika with my interview with Richard Soley on his perspective of the Software Engineering Method and Theory (SEMAT).  I think Richard wraps up the three SEMAT interviews materfully.

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 96! The Software Process and Measurement Cast this week features an in interview with Bertrand Meyer.  Bertand and I discussed his ideas on SEMAT and why IT and Academia need to find a common ground to share ideas and knowledge. From Wikipedia Bertrand Meye has been Professor of Software Engineering at ETH Zürich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology since October 2001, where he pursues research on building trusted components (reusable software elements) with a guaranteed level of quality. Dr. Meyer pursues the ideal of simple, elegant and user-friendly computer languages and is one of the earliest and most vocal proponents of object-oriented programming (OOP). His book Object-Oriented Software Construction is widely considered to be the best work on presenting the case for OOP. Other books he has written include Eiffel: The Language (a description of the Eiffel language), Object Success (a discussion of object technology for managers), Reusable Software (a discussion of reuse issues and solutions), Introduction to the Theory of Programming Languages and Touch of Class. He has authored numerous articles and edited conference proceedings. He is the initial designer of the Eiffel method and language and has continued to participate in its evolution, and is the originator of the Design by Contract development method. His experiences with object technology through the Simula language, as well as early work on abstract data types and formal specification (including the Z notation), provided some of the background for the development of Eiffel. Eiffel has been influential in the development of other languages including Java, C# and Python. Bertand is one of the troika of thought leaders that have brought SEMAT to the world. See Bertand's website for more information and contact data: Citrix GoToAssist Express is sponsoring SPaMCAST Solve technical issues faster with GoToAssist Express. Contact information for the Software Process and Measurement CastEmail:  Voicemail:  +1-206-888-6111Website: Twitter: Facebook:  Conferences and Speaking Engagements in 2010 (To Date) ISMA Cinco in Sao Paulo September 13-15.  I will be one of the featured speakers.  THe title of the presentation is Function Points:  Past, Present and Future.  The website to get more information is   I hope to see you there! Next!SPaMCAST 97 will feature another essay from the Metrics Minute on Time-to-Market.

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 95! Software Process and Measurement Cast features an essay on labor productivity which is an excerpt from a new writing project I am calling The Metrics Minute.  You will see more essays from this project in the future and a call to action. The first few lines . . .Labor productivity measures efficiency of the transformation of labor into something of higher value.  Labor productivity (typically called productivity) is a fairly simple manufacturing concept that has been found itself useful in IT.  Productivity is the amount of output per unit of input; an example in manufacturing terms can be expressed as10 widgets for every hour worked. Labor productivity is a powerful metric, made even more powerful by it's simplicity. At its heart, productivity is a measure of the efficiency of a process (or group of processes). Citrix GoToAssist Express is sponsoring SPaMCAST Solve technical issues faster with GoToAssist Express. Mastering Software Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing has hit the bookshelves!  According to Robert C. Anderson, Director, Process Development and Quality Assurance, Computer Aid, Inc, "Mastering Software Project Management is a masterpiece of clarity, organization and depth of practical knowledge." If you a project manager or know project managers buy yourself a copy and a second to lend co-workers! Contact information for the Software Process and Measurement CastEmail:  Voicemail:  +1-206-888-6111Website: Twitter: Facebook:  Conferences and Speaking Engagements in 2010 (To Date):ISMA Cinco in Sao Paulo September 13-15.  I will be one of the featured speakers.  The title of the presentation is Function Points:  Past, Present and Future.  The website to get more information is   I hope to see you there! Next!SPaMCAST 96 will return to the SEMAT Troika with my interview with Bertran Meyer on his perspective of the Software Engineering Method and Theory (SEMAT).