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Productivity centre helps software house
Productivitycentre helps sof~are house by GEOFF NANCOLAS
S
oftware houses have to act quickly when a prospective client puts a project out to tender. A million pound bid can be put together in as little as four weeks. In that time the software house must produce an offer that is competitive yet profitable. One UK software house, Software Sciences, has decided that the key to success lies in improved productivity and quality of product. Tlo this end it made an internal investigation into ways of improving software production. As a result a ‘productivity centre’ was set up less than a year ago. With a permanent staff of three the centre has several ways of working toward increased productivity. The centre reviews the prices and the technology being quoted to chents. It has to ensure that the best price is achieved and that the projects are planned in a sensible way. Previously, the bid team took their proposals to a production manager for checking. However, the priority of a Abstract: In an elfort to be more competitive
qf
and profitable in biddingfbr soj’iu,are development projects, a softzvare house has set up a prod~ct~vztycentr<*.The centre controls the standard use toolsand technique across ail its prqlects, and makes recommendations on bids. Keywords: data processing, @ware techniques, productivi~~~. Geoff Nancoias is manager of the productivity centre at Software Sciences..
~0126
no 7
September
1!)84
production managers is to minimize risks by having as few problems per project as possible. While production managers and the productivity centre want to ensure that projects can be completed to time and profitably, the productivity centre takes a more radical approach to pricing and to the technology used. For example, the centre recently analysed applications generators on the market and selected two - Pro IV for transaction processing systems and Omnibase for database development applications. These are now recommended for all project use. Compared with ‘safe’ COBOL, productivity on a four-project cycle can be increased by 30% using Pro IV instead. As the difference between winning and losing a contact can be as little as 4% in pricing terms, this productivity increase could lead to more tenders being won. Before a tender reaches a ctient the bid team meets the centre three times, to state its intentions, to receive recommendations, and to produce a final bid, incorporating the recommendations. Any dispute goes to the production director or managing director for a decision. Once a project is up and running the productivity centre provides any advice and assistance needed on available tools and techniques. One of the centre’s permanent staff is a specialist in analysing systems
0011-684X/84/070023-01$03.00
0
1984 Butterworth
performance. terns tuning mance.
IIe gives advice on sysfor increased perfor-
Work of the centre To achieve greater standardization in performance nleasurement in different projects the centre has editors and authors producing a revised software production manual. ‘The manual sets out the procedures and techniques in use in the company. The centre then ensures that standard tools and techniques are being used by all project teams. This should improve quality of software product.
Liaison within the company As well as project teams, the productivity centre bases with the :echnicaf audit group, the software technology group, and sales and marketing. The technical audit group solves project problems as they occur. It can thus check the quality of a project as it is carried out and make sure that the recommended standards are adhered to. The quality assurance group also carries out an audit to ensure that standards laid down bv the centre are adhered to. The software technology group develops productivit:y tools and techniques to be incorporated as standard across the company. Less formal is the liaison with the sales and marketing organizations within the company. They provide competitive and client information. The concept of the productivity centre is still new to Software Sciences. It is still building the base metrics for judging and improving productivity, and creating the lines of information flow within the organization. Altho~lgh it is too early to measure the success of the centre, first indications are that benefit:s will be reaped in terms of company competitiveness 0 and increased product quality. _. Software Sciences Lrd, Abbey House. Farn~rough Road, Farnboro~gh~ GUI4 7NB, UK. Tel: (02521 544321
& Co (Publishers)
Ltd.
282-292 Hants
23
S
oftware houses have to act quickly when a prospective client puts a project out to tender. A million pound bid can be put together in as little as four weeks. In that time the software house must produce an offer that is competitive yet profitable. One UK software house, Software Sciences, has decided that the key to success lies in improved productivity and quality of product. Tlo this end it made an internal investigation into ways of improving software production. As a result a ‘productivity centre’ was set up less than a year ago. With a permanent staff of three the centre has several ways of working toward increased productivity. The centre reviews the prices and the technology being quoted to chents. It has to ensure that the best price is achieved and that the projects are planned in a sensible way. Previously, the bid team took their proposals to a production manager for checking. However, the priority of a Abstract: In an elfort to be more competitive
qf
and profitable in biddingfbr soj’iu,are development projects, a softzvare house has set up a prod~ct~vztycentr<*.The centre controls the standard use toolsand technique across ail its prqlects, and makes recommendations on bids. Keywords: data processing, @ware techniques, productivi~~~. Geoff Nancoias is manager of the productivity centre at Software Sciences..
~0126
no 7
September
1!)84
production managers is to minimize risks by having as few problems per project as possible. While production managers and the productivity centre want to ensure that projects can be completed to time and profitably, the productivity centre takes a more radical approach to pricing and to the technology used. For example, the centre recently analysed applications generators on the market and selected two - Pro IV for transaction processing systems and Omnibase for database development applications. These are now recommended for all project use. Compared with ‘safe’ COBOL, productivity on a four-project cycle can be increased by 30% using Pro IV instead. As the difference between winning and losing a contact can be as little as 4% in pricing terms, this productivity increase could lead to more tenders being won. Before a tender reaches a ctient the bid team meets the centre three times, to state its intentions, to receive recommendations, and to produce a final bid, incorporating the recommendations. Any dispute goes to the production director or managing director for a decision. Once a project is up and running the productivity centre provides any advice and assistance needed on available tools and techniques. One of the centre’s permanent staff is a specialist in analysing systems
0011-684X/84/070023-01$03.00
0
1984 Butterworth
performance. terns tuning mance.
IIe gives advice on sysfor increased perfor-
Work of the centre To achieve greater standardization in performance nleasurement in different projects the centre has editors and authors producing a revised software production manual. ‘The manual sets out the procedures and techniques in use in the company. The centre then ensures that standard tools and techniques are being used by all project teams. This should improve quality of software product.
Liaison within the company As well as project teams, the productivity centre bases with the :echnicaf audit group, the software technology group, and sales and marketing. The technical audit group solves project problems as they occur. It can thus check the quality of a project as it is carried out and make sure that the recommended standards are adhered to. The quality assurance group also carries out an audit to ensure that standards laid down bv the centre are adhered to. The software technology group develops productivit:y tools and techniques to be incorporated as standard across the company. Less formal is the liaison with the sales and marketing organizations within the company. They provide competitive and client information. The concept of the productivity centre is still new to Software Sciences. It is still building the base metrics for judging and improving productivity, and creating the lines of information flow within the organization. Altho~lgh it is too early to measure the success of the centre, first indications are that benefit:s will be reaped in terms of company competitiveness 0 and increased product quality. _. Software Sciences Lrd, Abbey House. Farn~rough Road, Farnboro~gh~ GUI4 7NB, UK. Tel: (02521 544321
& Co (Publishers)
Ltd.
282-292 Hants
23