The Case for Space© 2003 Sixhills Consulting. Proprietary and ConfidentialP1ProductivityHow does Working Environment affect Productivity?Software development is one of the more measured and benchmarked functions, with many cost estimation tools. However, ‘soft’ factors are often ignored. COCOMO II, for example, assumes that projects are well-managed. Drivers of ProductivityCOCOMO II ExampleProduct• Reliability required• Scale• Complexity• Reuse• DocumentationProject• Tools/methods• Multi-site• Schedule constraintsPersonnel• Analytical capability• Developer capability• Continuity• ExpertisePlatform• Time criticality• Scale• Storage constraints• Volatility‘Soft Factors’• Work environment• Team arrangement• MotivationProcess maturity is relatively unimportant (1.43x)Staff seniority is significant in the COCOMO model (3.02x). All personnel factors equal a combined 25.8x factor across the range!“Poor management can increase software costs more rapidly than any other factor. Despite this cost variation, COCOMO does not include a factor for management quality, but instead provides estimates that assume the project will be well managed.” Barry Boehm, creator of COCOMO
< Page 1 | Page 3 >