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From: kmccook@wrdis01.af.mil (Ken McCook)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.software-eng
Subject: How Is Your Project?  How Do You Know?
Message-ID: <460@wrdis01.af.mil>
Date: 17 Apr 91 16:13:45 GMT
Followup-To: comp.software-eng
Organization: U.S.A.F. 1926th CCSG Robins AFB GA
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


I'm posting this to both groups to draw a wider response and because I write
Ada code and think and design software systems in Ada. 

(*PLEASE* follow-up to comp.software-eng).
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My Boss has asked that we try and define a statistical method that he can use
to take the pulse of any given project so he'll have a *TRUE* indication
of how that project is going.  He's looking for a Total Quality Management (TQM)
consistent indicator using statistical process control (SPC).  

I know software management is different from software engineering, but does 
software engineering allow us to better measure a projects health?  We've toyed 
with this notion for more than a year now to no avail.  I thought I'd put it 
to the net and see what comes up.

How do other managers and other development shops determine how well they are
doing on a given project?  Can you develop indicators on the intangibles 
involved in software development?  If software engineering is going to help us
to build software like structural engineering builds bridges, what do other
engineers use to measure their projects by?  I've read all the back-postings
and have seen some good discussion about software projects each being as 
different as a dam is from a suspension bridge, but can there be commonalities?
Are they measurable?

Someone must have a handle on this, after all, if a contractor/vendor couldn't
predict with some degree of accuracy his capabilities to produce software
products and how well he was doing compared to his estimate, then all projects
would be underbid and overdue, and soon he'd be out of business.(?)

Hope you find this thread worth some discussion!  I'm interested in all
viewpoints.
________________________________________________________________________________

Ken McCook	          U.S.A.F. 1926th CCSG Robins AFB GA      (912) 926-3224
kmccook@wrdis01.af.mil	                                          (DSN) 468-3224
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