Software Process and Measurement Cast

Show 34 is the beginning of my interview with Phil Armour.  I am calling this interview, “Estimation Ain’t Planning”.  I must admit that I have been quoting this interview since I taped it.  Amazingly powerful concepts, so powerful I decided to revisit estimation. Phillip G. Armour is VP for Systems Development and a Senior Consultant at Corvus International Inc. Phil has been developing software for over thirty-five years.  He has been a programmer, analyst, project manager, DBA, systems architect, process engineer, metrics engineer, consultant, and executive coach and has worked for organizations as diverse as United Airlines, Motorola, Argonne National Laboratory, General Dynamics, the IRS, the premier software consulting company in India, and the largest cellular service provider in Central West Africa.  In the last fifteen years, Phil has personally taught software development techniques and management principles to over 20,000 developers, engineers, managers, and executives.   Phil’s primary professional focus is currently in two related areas: software project estimation and software technical team development.   Since 2000, Phil has been a contributing editor on ACM’s flagship magazine “Communications of the ACM” and writes a regular column entitled “The Business of Software” where he explores issues to do with the nature and challenges of modern software.  He has been on the extended faculty at the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management and the Mendoza School of Business at the University of Notre Dame.    Phil is also the author of “The Laws of Software Process” published by Auerbach in 2003.  He is a member of ACM, IEEE, and the Project Management Institute.   Telephone:      (847)-438-1609Fax:               (847)-438-1638Email:               The essay is titled “Estimation, Planning and Goals: All Different I Say!”.   The essay explores the confusion of words used in project planning and control.  The essay may be due to my long-term issue with a how words are used and misused, false levels of precision or just the fact that the process relating to the software engineering disciplines like estimation continue to prove to be difficult to implement regardless of the development method used.  The text of the essay can be found at .  Comments and corrections are welcome. There are a number of ways to share your thoughts .  Email SPaMCAST at  Voice messages can be left at 1-206-888-6111 Twitter – BLOG – Future Events and the next . . . Conference season is beginning! I will be speaking at IFPUG’s 3rd Annual ISMA Conference and Fall Workshops Sunday, September 14 – Friday, September 19, 2008 at the Westin Arlington Gateway Hotel information at .  The presentation is call “Counting Facebook” and will be on Friday September 19, 2008 at 10:25 AM - 11:25 AM, I am speaking at Quest Toronto 2008 Conference, September 22- 26, 2008, at the Hilton Hotel in Toronto, Canada.  I will be presenting “Good Numbers Go Bad” on Wed Sept 24th from 1:30 - 2:30 pm and also joining in as a subject matter expert in the end of day solutions workshop.  Information can be found at Finally I will be speaking at the Northeast Quality Council 57th Conference.  The conference is scheduled for October 14 – 15 , 2008 in Marlborough, Massachusetts at Best Western Royal Plaza.   The presentation is titled “One Size Fits . . .Someone Other Than Me”.  Information can be found at . Next Software Process and Measurement Cast: On the next SPaMCAST I will interview Charlene Li of Forrester Research, co-author of “”.  We talked about opinion how are social networks and strategies rewriting the organization and its relations to its customers.

SPaMCAST 33 - Donnellan, Software Metrics Programs Part 2, Guest Essay   Show 33 is part two of my interview with Rob Donnellan discussing the trials and tribulations of metrics programs.  Rob has provided a plethora tips for developing and marketing metrics programs if you are in the metrics business make sure you list to both this interview and the first part of the interview in show 30.    Rob Donnellan, IT Excellence Value Builder, has more than 28 years of industry experience.   Rob delivers executive-level "IT Excellence" consulting.  Prior to joining Q/P Management Group, Rob was a Director with META Group, Nautilus Advisors (an outsourcing consultancy), and Cap Gemini.  His key responsibilities have been to develop next-generation consulting services, and to lead IT management consulting projects primarily devoted to process improvement, IT portfolio management, IT diagnosis, performance engineering/measurement, and benchmarking.  He has been a regular speaker for industry organizations such as the APQC, PMI, SPIN, SIM, IFPUG, and The Balanced Scorecard Collaborative.  He holds a Masters Degree in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a B.A. in Liberal Arts from the University of Connecticut. Mr. Donnellan can be contacted by email at rob.donnellan@qpmg.com or by phone at (401) 783-3005.  Q/P Management Group’s web site can be found at http://www.qpmg.com/.   The essay is The essay explores a thorny subject that is rarely discussed at conferences or in the literature. Frank would appreciate comments.   There are a number of ways to share your thoughts . . Email SPaMCAST at Voice messages can be left at 1-206-888-6111Twitter – BLOG – Future Events and the next . . . I have another webinar coming up in May. The webinar is titled “A Cost Effective Approach to Enterprise Wide Software Process Improvement” May 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 am - 11:30 am Eastern Time More information and registration information can be found at Conference season is beginning!   I will be speaking at IFPUG’s 3rd Annual ISMA Conference and Fall Workshops Sunday, September 14 – Friday, September 19, 2008 at the Westin Arlington Gateway Hotel information at .  The presentation is call “Counting Facebook” and will be on Friday September 19, 2008 at 10:25 AM - 11:25 AM, I am speaking at Quest Toronto 2008 Conference, September 22- 26, 2008, at the Hilton Hotel in Toronto, Canada.  I will be presenting “Good Numbers Go Bad” on Wed Sept 24th from 1:30 - 2:30 pm and also joining in as a subject matter expert in the end of day solutions workshop.  Information can be found at   Finally I will be speaking at the Northeast Quality Council 57th Conference.  The conference is scheduled for October 14 – 15 , 2008 in Marlborough, Massachusetts at Best Western Royal Plaza.   The presentation is titled “One Size Fits . . .Someone Other Than Me”.  Information can be found at .   Next Software Process and Measurement Cast: On the next SPaMCAST I will begin a massive interview with Phil Armour.  Phil presented some of the most thought provoking and provocative ideas on estimation and while I was going to delay discussing estimation again for a at least a few months I frankly could not help myself.

Show 32 is part two of my interview with Murali Chemuturi on the topic of estimation.  You might think part two is just more of the same but think again.  Murali has laid out some interesting theories and data.   Mr Chemuturi has made a very gracious offer, for every comment SPaMCAST gets on Murali’s interview Murali has authorized me to send a PDF copy of his new book on estimation.    Mr. Chemuturi has over thirty four years of total experience out of which about 23 years have been spent in the field of information technology.  Has worked at TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES for five and half years and at ELECTRONICS COROPORATION OF INDIA LIMITED for nineteen. Murali also worked at SATYAM COMPUTER SERVICES LTD., METAMOR GLOBAL SOLUTIONS LTD. and Vistaar eBusinesses Pvt Ltd.  His CV includes numerous publications and he is the author of an upcoming book on estimation which I will review on a future Software Measurement and Process Cast.    Mr. Chemuturi can be contacted by email at or by phone at 91-40-27220771, 91-0-988-501-9461 and in the USA at 1- 347-394-3138.  His web site can be found at   The essay is ”.   The excerpt explores how poor communication can effect a metrics program (and is a bit of foreshadowing of a presentation I will be doing later this year (see below).  The text of the essay can be found at .  Comments and corrections are welcome. There are a number of ways to share your thoughts . . Email SPaMCAST at Voice messages can be left at 1-206-888-6111Twitter – BLOG – Future Events and the next . . . I have a couple of free webinars coming up in early 2008.  The first is “Getting Performance Improvement Out of Your Software Process Improvement” on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM EDT I have another webinar coming up in May. The webinar is titled “A Cost Effective Approach to Enterprise Wide Software Process Improvement” May 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 am - 11:30 am Eastern Time More information and registration information can be found at   Conference season is beginning!   I will be speaking at IFPUG’s 3rd Annual ISMA Conference and Fall Workshops Sunday, September 14 – Friday, September 19, 2008 at the Westin Arlington Gateway Hotel information at .  The presentation is call “Counting Facebook” and will be on Friday September 19, 2008 at 10:25 AM - 11:25 AM, I am speaking at Quest Toronto 2008 Conference, September 22- 26, 2008, at the Hilton Hotel in Toronto, Canada.  I will be presenting “Good Numbers Go Bad” on Wed Sept 24th from 1:30 - 2:30 pm and also joining in as a subject matter expert in the end of day solutions workshop.  Information can be found at   Finally I will be speaking at the Northeast Quality Council 57th Conference.  The conference is scheduled for October 14 – 15 , 2008 in Marlborough, Massachusetts at Best Western Royal Plaza.   The presentation is titled “One Size Fits . . .Someone Other Than Me”.  Information can be found at .   Next Software Process and Measurement Cast: On the next SPaMCAST  we will jump back into the interview with Rob Donnellan of Q/P Management Group covering a wide range of measurement and process improvement topics.  Your thoughts and comments are always a welcome addition and remember I have Murali’s PDF with your name on it!

Show 31 features an interview with Scott Ambler of IBM discussing Test Driven Development and other Agile topics.    Scott W. Ambler is the Practice Leader Agile Development with IBM Rational and he works with IBM customers around the world to improve their software processes.  He is the founder of the Agile Modeling (AM), Agile Data (AD), Agile Unified Process (AUP), and Enterprise Unified Process (EUP) methodologies.  Scott is the (co-)author of 19 books, including Refactoring Databases, Agile Modeling, Agile Database Techniques, The Object Primer 3rd Edition, and The Enterprise Unified Process.  Scott is a senior contributing editor with Dr. Dobb’s Journal.    Check out Mr. ambler’s blogs at: Personal home page: Agile at Scale blog: .   The essay for this cast is titled “Are Words a Predictor of Change Adoption".  The essay explores the relationship between words and what they predict about success in process improvement.  The text of the essay can be found at .  Comments and corrections are welcome. There are a number of ways to share your thoughts . . Email SPaMCAST at  Voice messages can be left at 1-206-888-6111 Twitter – BLOG –   Future Events and the next . . . I have a couple of free webinars coming up in early 2008.  The first is “Getting Performance Improvement Out of Your Software Process Improvement" on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM EDT And the second is titled “A Cost Effective Approach to Enterprise Wide Software Process Improvement" May 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 am - 11:30 am Eastern Time More information and registration information can be found at   Next Software Process and Measurement Cast: On the next SPaMCAST I will be airing part 2 of the interview with Murali Chemuturi on estimation and software sizing.  To describe the interview I will just say “damn!" and let you dive in. Your thoughts and comments are always a welcome addition . . .

SPaMCAST 30 – Donnellan, Metrics Programs, Passion and Success   Show 30 begins a two part interview with Rob Donnellan on the topic of metrics programs.     Rob Donnellan, IT Excellence Value Builder, has more than 28 years of industry experience.   Rob delivers executive-level "IT Excellence" consulting.  Prior to joining Q/P Management Group, Rob was a Director with META Group, Nautilus Advisors (an outsourcing consultancy), and Cap Gemini.  His key responsibilities have been to develop next-generation consulting services, and to lead IT management consulting projects primarily devoted to process improvement, IT portfolio management, IT diagnosis, performance engineering/measurement, and benchmarking.  He has been a regular speaker for industry organizations such as the APQC, PMI, SPIN, SIM, IFPUG, and The Balanced Scorecard Collaborative.  He holds a Masters Degree in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a B.A. in Liberal Arts from the University of Connecticut. Mr. Donnellan can be contacted by email at rob.donnellan@qpmg.com or by phone at (401) 783-3005.  Q/P Management Group’s web site can be found at http://www.qpmg.com/.   The essay for this cast is titled “Passion and Success".  The essay discusses the relationship between passion and success in process improvment.  The text of the essay can be found at .  Comments and corrections are welcome. There are a number of ways to share your thoughts . . Email SPaMCAST at  Voice messages can be left at 1-206-888-6111 Twitter – BLOG –   Future Events and the next . . . I have a couple of free webinars coming up in early 2008.  The first is “Getting Performance Improvement Out of Your Software Process Improvement" on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM EDT And the second is titled “A Cost Effective Approach to Enterprise Wide Software Process Improvement" May 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 am - 11:30 am Eastern Time More information and registration information can be found at Next Software Process and Measurement Cast: On the next SPaMCAST I will be airing an interview I did with Scott Ambler on scaling test driven development.  Agilistas, this one is for you!  Part 2 of the interview with Rob will air on show 33. Your thoughts and comments are always a welcome addition . . .

Show 29 begins a two part interview with Murali Chemuturi on the topic of estimation.  This is not the first time the Cast has examined estimation however I think you will find that Murali’s thoughts will add your knowledge base and might even spark heated debate.      Mr. Chemuturi has over thirty four years of total experience out of which about fourteen years have been spent in the field of information technology.  Has worked at TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES for five and half years and at ELECTRONICS COROPORATION OF INDIA LIMITED for nineteen. Murali also worked at SATYAM COMPUTER SERVICES LTD., METAMOR GLOBAL SOLUTIONS LTD. and Vistaar eBusinesses Pvt Ltd.  His CV includes numerous publications and he is the author of an upcoming book on estimation which I will review on a future Software Measurement and Process Cast.    Mr. Chemuturi can be contacted by email at or by phone at 91-40-27220771, 91-0-988-501-9461 and in the USA at 1- 347-394-3138.  His web site can be found at   The essay for this cast is titled “Responsibility, Got Some?.  The essay discusses the evil alter ego of committees and consensus management.  The text of the essay can be found at .  Comments and corrections are welcome. There are a number of ways to share your thoughts . . Email SPaMCAST at Voice messages can be left at 1-206-888-6111Twitter – BLOG –   Future Events and the next . . . I have a couple of free webinars coming up in early 2008.  The first is “Getting Performance Improvement Out of Your Software Process Improvement" on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM EDT And the second is titled “A Cost Effective Approach to Enterprise Wide Software Process Improvement" May 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 am - 11:30 am Eastern Time More information and registration information can be found at   Next Software Process and Measurement Cast: On the next SPaMCAST I am trying something new.  I am breaking up parts one and two of the interview with Murali and beginning a two part interview with Rob Donnellan of Q/P Management Group covering a wide range of measurement and process improvement topics.  We will pick back up with Murali on show 32. Your thoughts and comments are always a welcome addition . . .

Show 28 features Part Two of an interview with Ivar Jacobson, author, pundit and one of the creators of UML.  The discussion covered topics ranging from methodologies to his new concept, practices.   If process improvement and methodology are important to you, this is an important interview full of new concepts. An abridged version of Mr. Jacobson’s Wikipedia biography notes that he is a Swedish computer scientist he holds a s of at in and a from the in . In 1967 he proposed the use of in the development of the new generation of controlled telephone switches was developing. In doing this he invented sequence diagrams, and developed collaboration diagrams. He also applied state transition diagrams to describe the message flow between the components. At Ericsson he also invented as a way to specify functional software requirements. In April 1987 he quit Ericsson and started . A majority stake of the company was acquired by Ericsson in 1991 (you can run but  . . .), and the company was renamed to Objectory AB. In October 1995 Ericsson divested Objectory to and Ivar started working with Grady Booch and to first create the , and later develop the . In mid 2003 Ivar formed Ivar Jacobson International (IJI) which is an umbrella company for Ivar Jacobson Consulting (IJC) which operates across 4 continents with offices in the UK, US (West and East Coast), Scandinavia, China, Korea, Singapore and Australia. In November 2005, Jacobson announced the or “EssUP" for short. EssUP is a new “Practice" centric software development process that stands on the shoulders of modern but established software development best practice. It is a fresh new start integrating successful practices sourced from the three leading process camps: the unified process camp, the agile methods camp and the process maturity camp. Each one of them contributes different capabilities: structure, agility and process improvement. Ivar has described EssUP as a "super light and agile" RUP and IJC have integrated EssUP into and . Check out http://www.ivarjacobson.com   and http://www.ivarblog.com/  The essay for this cast is titled “Social Media and Process Improvement."  The essay discusses the impact of social media on the practice of process improvement.  The text of the essay can be found at .  Comments and corrections are welcome. There are a number of ways to share your thoughts . . Email SPaMCAST at  Voice messages can be left at 1-206-888-6111 Twitter – BLOG –   Future Events and the next . . . I have a couple of free webinars coming up in early 2008.  The first is “Getting Performance Improvement Out of Your Software Process Improvement" on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM EDT And the second is titled “A Cost Effective Approach to Enterprise Wide Software Process Improvement" May 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 am - 11:30 am Eastern Time More information and registration information can be found at Next Software Process and Measurement Cast: The Software Process and Measurement Cast 29 will feature an interview with Murali Chemuturi on estimation.  Murali’s take on estimation is razor sharp and will be a valuable addition to your knowledge base.  Your thoughts and comments would be a welcome addition . . .

Show 27 features part one of an interview with Ivar Jacobson, author, pundit and one of the creators of UML.  The discussion covered topics ranging from methodologies to his new concept, practices.   If process improvement and methodology are important to you, this is an important interview full of new concepts. An abridged version of Mr. Jacobson’s Wikipedia biography notes that he is a Swedish computer scientist he holds a s of at in and a from the in . In 1967 he proposed the use of in the development of the new generation of controlled telephone switches was developing. In doing this he invented sequence diagrams, and developed collaboration diagrams. He also applied state transition diagrams to describe the message flow between the components. At Ericsson he also invented as a way to specify functional software requirements. In April 1987 he quit Ericsson and started . A majority stake of the company was acquired by Ericsson in 1991 (you can run but  . . .) , and the company was renamed to Objectory AB. In October 1995 Ericsson divested Objectory to and Ivar started working with Grady Booch and to first create the , and later develop the . In mid 2003 Ivar formed Ivar Jacobson International (IJI) which is an umbrella company for Ivar Jacobson Consulting (IJC) which operates across 4 continents with offices in the UK, US (West and East Coast), Scandinavia, China, Korea, Singapore and Australia. In November 2005, Jacobson announced the or “EssUP" for short. EssUP is a new “Practice" centric software development process that stands on the shoulders of modern but established software development best practice. It is a fresh new start integrating successful practices sourced from the three leading process camps: the unified process camp, the agile methods camp and the process maturity camp. Each one of them contributes different capabilities: structure, agility and process improvement. Ivar has described EssUP as a "super light and agile" RUP and IJC have integrated EssUP into and . Check out http://www.ivarjacobson.com   and http://www.ivarblog.com/   The essay for this cast is titled “We Are All Futurists."  The essay discusses the basis for predicting the future (can you say estimation) and why some people shy away from being a futurist.  The text of the essay can be found at .  Comments and corrections are welcome. There are a number of ways to share your thoughts . . Email SPaMCAST at  Voice messages can be left at 1-206-888-6111 Twitter – BLOG –   Future Events and the next . . . I have a couple of free webinars coming up in early 2008.  The first is “Getting Performance Improvement Out of Your Software Process Improvement" on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM EDT And the second is titled “A Cost Effective Approach to Enterprise Wide Software Process Improvement" May 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 am - 11:30 am Eastern Time More information and registration information can be found at Next Software Process and Measurement Cast: The next Software Process and Measurement Cast will be a special show.  Cast 28 will feature part two of the interview with Ivar Jacobson.  Your thoughts and comments would be a welcome addition . . .   Technorati Profile

SPaMCAST 26 - Carr, The Big Switch, Center   Show 26 features an interview with Nicolas Carr, author of “The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google" and “Does IT Matter".  The discussion ranged from computing as a utility to the impact of ubiquitous computing on business and society.    Mr. Carr is a former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review. He writes and speaks on technology, business, and culture. His 2004 book , published by Harvard Business School Press, set off a worldwide debate about the role of computers in business. His new book, , examines the future of computing and its implications for business and society. He also edited and wrote the introduction for , a book of HBR writings on the Internet, and contributed to , , and . Check out     and www.bigswitchbook.com   The essay for this cast is titled “The Center Will Not Hold."  The essay discusses change and the life cycle of how extreme changes evolve the mainstream over time.  The text of the essay can be found at .  Comments and corrections are welcome. There are a number of ways to share your thoughts . . Email SPaMCAST at  Voice messages can be left at 1-206-888-6111 Twitter – BLOG –   Future Events and the next . . . I have a couple of free webinars coming up in early 2008.  The first is “Getting Performance Improvement Out of Your Software Process Improvement" on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM EDT And the second is titled “A Cost Effective Approach to Enterprise Wide Software Process Improvement" May 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 am - 11:30 am Eastern Time More information and registration information can be found at   Next Software Process and Measurement Cast: The next Software Process and Measurement Cast will be a special show.  Cast 27 will feature a interview with Ivar Jacobson.  Your thoughts and comments would be a welcome addition . . .

SPaMCAST 25 - Booch, Omnibus Framework A few hours late . . . for some reason Audacity and Vista had a wrestling match this afternoon.  A couple of reinstalls later we are back in action however I think the interview and essay might be the some of the best of year one! Show 25 features an interview with Grady Booch.  The interview covers topics ranging from high ceremony processes, anarchy, and organizational governance to virtual worlds.  Humboldt Curve and even Moore’s Law even make appearances.  Grady is recognized internationally for his innovative work on software architecture and software engineering. A renowned visionary, he has devoted his life's work to improving the effectiveness of software developers worldwide. Grady served as Chief Scientist of since its founding in 1981 and continues to serve in that capacity within . Grady is one of the original authors of the and was also one of the original developers of several of Rational's products. Grady has served as architect and architectural mentor for numerous complex software-intensive systems around the world in just about every domain imaginable. Grady is the author of six best-selling books, including the UML Users Guide and the seminal Object-Oriented Analysis with Applications. He has published several hundred articles on software engineering, including papers published in the early '80s that originated the term and practice of object-oriented design (OOD), plus papers published in the early 2000's that originated the term and practice of collaborative development environments (CDE). At random times, the laws of physics to him. He is . Check out Contact Grady at architecture@booch.com The essay for this cast is titled “Omnibus Frameworks, Collaboration and Social Media."  The essay wrestles with balancing frameworks, collaboration and a new world order in process improvement.   Humans are generally social by nature, IT personnel are no different (although the stereotype indicates differently) the new focus on social media whether in second life, Twitter or other platforms are tools that will let you break down high ceremony processes into more manageable ‘practices.’   The shift from one size fits all frameworks to highly granular practices will allow you to shift control closer to work and support usage via social media tools.  The text of the essay can be found at .  Comments and corrections are welcome. There are a number of ways to share your thoughts . . Email SPaMCAST at  Voice messages can be left at 1-206-888-6111 Twitter – BLOG –   Future Events and the next . . . I have a couple of free webinars coming up in early 2008.  The first is “Getting Performance Improvement Out of Your Software Process Improvement" on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM EDT And the second is titled “A Cost Effective Approach to Enterprise Wide Software Process Improvement" May 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 am - 11:30 am Eastern Time More information and registration information can be found at Next Software Process and Measurement Cast: The next Software Process and Measurement Cast will be a special show.  Cast 26 will be a retrospective of the past year highlighting SPaMCAST’s first year.  Your thoughts and comments  would be a welcome addition . . .