Cutter Consortium

Deadline-Driven Project Estimation

General Overview:
Commercial pressures of today's economy result in imposed deadlines being the norm for technology projects. Yet the nature of software projects demands that teams deal with the constant dynamics of change. This creates extreme degrees of project risk and perpetuates the so-called "software crisis," whereby a large percentage of projects are canceled, delivered late, over budget, and/or poor quality. However, knowing the nature of these dynamics empowers managers to make decisions on promised functionality, thereby controlling the very factors that degrade software quality and reliability.

This presentation will address why software projects are different than other classes of work and how the R&D "laws" of lifecycle dynamics can be used to avert disaster. We will discuss benchmarking against "the competition" to fully understand how an organization stacks up, in multiple dimensions of speed, cost, staffing, and reliability. Plus, we will address laws of cause and effect, so managers can negotiate viable commitments, using proven and reliable techniques for software project estimation.

Leader: Michael Mah

Workshop Goals:
As a result of participating in this workshop, you'll know:
  • If "industry benchmarks" are the answer, what's the question?
  • How to use productivity baselines for estimation
  • Critical flaws in "traditional" planning processes
  • Risk management techniques when deadlines are fixed
  • What you can do about "dangerous metrics"


Intended Audience:
This talk is designed for both non-technical and technical software managers. This includes Vice Presidents of Engineering, Directors of Software Development, Quality Assurance Managers, Software Process Managers, Program Managers and Team Leaders, Audit Specialists, and Software Measurement Specialists.

For more information on bringing this workshop to your organization, contact Dennis Crowley by phone at +1 781 641 5125, by fax at +1 781 648 1950, or by e-mail at sales@cutter.com.
Deadline-Driven Project Estimation