Executive Brief

What can SaaS (Software as a Service) offer your organization? Review the countless benefits offered by this revolutionary software deployment model to determine if SaaS merits a test-drive. As you may know, Software as a Service (SaaS) is a method for delivering software applications to customers over the Internet. However, since SaaS solutions have only been available for approximately seven years, many information technology (IT) people – as well as company managers and owners - know very little about SaaS due to its recent emergence. Therefore, two key issues will determine if SaaS will grow in popularity in the near future: the education and training of IT people and the education of people in the business world. In 2000, the United States Census Bureau noted that out of two million provider businesses, approximately 100,000 of these companies were utilizing ... (more)

Scrum Software Development: Project Teams in Concert to Master Success

Surprisingly, Scrum development and music composition have a lot in common! The recent article by Paul Goddard shows how the strategy of a clear product vision, regular feedback and continuous testing and integration can help you master any software development project. The full article is available here: Scrum Software Development: Project Teams in Concert to Master Success. ... (more)

Software Engineering Maturity and the Process Revolution

To mature software engineering, we must learn from history, and to learn from history, we must define what we do when we develop software and how we do it. When we produce a process specification and define measures for the key process parameters, we are beginning to build the basis for reliably and consistently recording and learning from history. That is why the process revolution is so important. Judging by the history of other fields, software engineering and computer science are still in their infancy. We have yet to build an accepted foundation of proven and generally foll... (more)

Seven Things You Need to Know About Development Project Estimations

Whether you are a project manager planning for a smooth implementation of a plan or a project sponsor on whose decisions a project depends, you cannot escape from the fact that project estimation is essential to its success. In the first place, there are three basic requirements that a project must satisfy: schedule, budget, and quality. The need to work within these essential project boundaries poses a huge challenge to everyone in the central management team. There are various aspects that affect project estimates, such as team skills and experience levels, available technolog... (more)

Five Ways to Incorporate CMMI with Agile Methods

There is a common misconception that CMMI and Agile are polar opposites. One relies on institutionalization and documentation of processes and methodologies, while the other emphasizes interaction among workers and “working software over comprehensive documentation” (Agile Manifesto). Process documentation and institutionalization is the lifeblood of CMMI, and it is often used in critical software development life cycles. On the other hand, the Agile approach is called into action when a project features incremental changes, particularly those that have not been included in ini... (more)