Jul 25
2011
By Mark Kasunic,
Senior Member of the Technical Staff,
Software Engineering Process Management Program
Organizations run on data. They use it to manage programs, select products to fund or develop, make decisions, and guide improvement. Data comes in many forms, both structured (tables of numbers and text) and unstructured (emails, images, sound, etc.). Data are generally considered high quality if they are fit for their intended uses in operations, decision making, and planning. This definition implies that data quality is both a subjective perception of individuals involved with the data, as well as the quality associated with the objective measurements based on the data set in question. This post describes the work we’re doing with the Office of Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L)—a division of the Department of Defense (DoD) that oversees acquisition programs and is charged with, among other things, ensuring that the data reported to Congress is reliable.
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Jun 13
2011
By Robert Ferguson
Senior Member of the Technical Staff
Software Engineering Process Management Program
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has frequently cited poor
cost estimation as one of the reasons for cost overrun problems in
acquisition programs. Software is often a major culprit. One study on cost estimation
by the Naval Postgraduate School found a 34 percent median value
increase of software size over the estimate. Cost overruns lead to
painful Congressional scrutiny, and an overrun in one program often
cascades and leads to the depletion of funds from others. The challenges
encountered in estimating software cost were described in the first post
of this two-part series on improving the accuracy of early cost
estimates. This post describes new tools and methods we are developing
at the SEI to help cost estimation experts get the right information
they need into a familiar and usable form for producing high quality
cost estimates early in the life cycle.
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May 23
2011
By Robert Ferguson
Senior Member of the Technical Staff
Software Engineering Process Management Program
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has frequently cited
poor cost estimation as one of the reasons for cost overrun problems in
acquisition programs. Software is often a major culprit. One study on
cost estimation by the Naval Postgraduate School found a 34 percent
median value increase of software size over the estimate. Cost overruns
lead to painful Congressional scrutiny, and an overrun in one program
often leads to the depletion of funds from another. This post, the
first in a series on improving the accuracy of early cost estimates,
describes challenges we have observed trying to accurately estimate
software effort and cost in Department of Defense (DOD) acquisition
programs, as well as other product development organizations.
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