Software by Numbers: Low-Risk, High-Return Development [Paperback]

Mark Denne (Author), Jane Cleland-Huang (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Software by Numbers is a significant new contribution to value-based, financially responsible software engineering...—Barry Boehm, Ph.D., Director, USC Center for Software Engineering, Creator of COCOMO and Spiral Model

Link software development to value creation and optimize ROI.

Ultimately, software development is about creating value—yet, all too often, software fails to deliver the business value customers need. This book will help you change that, by linking software development directly to value creation. You'll learn exactly how to identify which features add value and which don't—and refocus your entire development process on delivering more value, more rapidly.

Software by Numbers shows you how to:

• Identify Minimum Marketable Features (MMFs)—the fundamental units of value in software development
• Accelerate value delivery by linking iterative development to iterative funding
• Optimize returns through incremental architecture techniques
• Effectively involve business stakeholders in the development process
• Sequence feature delivery based on "mini-ROI" assessments
• Quantify financial risk at every step throughout the development process
• Manage "intangibles" throughout the software development process

Whatever methodology you're already using—whether it's RUP or XP—this book shows how to achieve the goals that matter most to your business: reduced risk, better cash flow, and higher ROI.

About the Author

MARK DENNE is a Partner with consultancy firm Accenture, specializing in IT Transformation. He previously managed Sun Microsystems' Java Center in New York City leading architects working with financial services, media, and retail clients. He was Sun's chief architect for Citibank's financial services portal, voted the world's best online banking portal by Forbes and Yahoo! As head of software R&D for Computer Automation Europe, he invented the SABRE business-oriented 4GL.

DR. JANE CLELAND-HUANG is Assistant Professor at DePaul University's School of Computer Science, Telecommunications, and Information Systems, and Associate Director of DePaul's Institute for Software Engineering. Her research interests include process models, requirements engineering, and traceability. She currently teaches graduate and undergraduate courses at DePaul, supervises an active research program, and has published several papers in leading research journals.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (October 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131407287
• ISBN-13: 978-0131407282
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #528,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ground-breaking, June 13, 2004

By 

Lasse Koskela (Helsinki, Finland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Software by Numbers: Low-Risk, High-Return Development (Paperback)

"Software by Numbers" is yet another book I would like any manager involved in my working life to read and re-read.

The authors describe an Incremental Funding Method (IFM) for scheduling incremental development of software which optimizes the Return on Investment (ROI) by having the requirements engineered into Minimum Marketable Features (MMF) with concrete, monetary value.

The book is very light (less than 200 pages) but packed with interesting material. I read most of the book during a flight from Finland to Germany and finished the book on my way home. Despite the minimal page count, the authors manage to explain why their method is desperately needed and how it fits to existing software processes such as RUP and XP. They also describe the business case for incremental architecture and different strategies for sequencing MMFs and Architectural Elements (AE) for maximum ROI over the project's lifetime.

The only downside I found for this book is that I would've needed some more baby-steps support for the actual calculations (sequence-adjusted net present values etc.). I'm sure others will be hoping to see some more real world examples of feature deconstruction and sequencing as well. On the other hand, I really appreciate the fact that the authors made the effort of putting up a spreadsheet online for supporting their method.

Overall, an excellent book. Highly recommended.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Add rigor to modern development methods, December 2, 2004

By 

Stuart Charlton (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Software by Numbers: Low-Risk, High-Return Development (Paperback)

This book hopefully is the atomic bomb that will destroy the remaining methodologies that insist on treating software development like a manufacturing process.

Software development is not manufacturing, nor is it construction, nor is it "just" engineering. It is precisely "development", as in product development. It is a mix of economics, science, art, engineering, and craft. It is "knowledge work", and therefore cannot be optimized by critical path analysis, scientific management techniques, or formal method compliance.

The above, however, is no excuse for a lack financial discipline and rigor in the business case. Most modern approaches have no concept of finances and costs, nor do they apply cost/benefits analysis to the ordering of features. This was to be the responsibility of the "customer", but sadly, they're as human as the developers, and are only familiar with the old tried-and-true WBS time/cost projections. Negotiated-scope contracts are only a partial solution to this problem. Many executives want to get an understanding of their discounted cash flow projections vs. "total spend" over an arbitrary period. They need to ensure they are achieving an appropriate return for the capital commitment.

This book's incremental funding method enables you to budget, sequence, risk-adjust, and NPV-optimize every marketable user story or bundle of use cases over a set period. It will enable you to ROI-justify your software architecture and evolve it instead of sinking costs into it up-front. It will show to non-technical executives the true benefits of agile development: faster time-to-revenue, projects that rapidly self-fund, quicker break-even points, and smaller up-front investments.

In short, this book is an indispensible means to sell the breakthrough productivity of agile methods.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have for product-based organizations too, December 7, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Software by Numbers: Low-Risk, High-Return Development (Paperback)

I picked up this book based on the recommendation of a collegue,and found the information invaluable. I work in a product-based IT organization, and these concepts are very helpful for mature product release planning and budgeting, which was a missing element at my company. I am not sure about the comments from the previous reviewer saying the book is based on a flawed premise that "you know the costs and time frame for development to a high degree of accuracy for every available option." It is explicitly stated in the book several times that estimation, not perfection, is the key and perfect-world scenarios don't exist. The authors even say that due to potential and probable changes in cost and time estimation, market conditions, etc. that one should revisit MMF sequencing at the start of each period anyway. Also, the website of the book, http://www.softwarebynumbers.org, explains about accurate projections in the FAQ section. Overall, a very useful tool!