Home Based Business Opportunities

Making the Software Business Case: Improvement by the Numbers ALIGN=”left”> For years, I have watched software engineers struggle to justify investments of every kind and examine cost-effectiveness issues. Although they know how to present the technical issues and alternatives crisply and simply, they just can’t seem to pull the numbers together. Those who try never seem to paint a convincing picture. While they fumble, the opportunity slips away. Or they are eaten alive as they pitch their ideas because they cannot answer the hard questions posed about costs/benefits, which typically involve the financials and business justifications. For example, engineers frequently fail to factor the cost of money and/or tax implications into the consideration (depreciation, R I’ve embellished them to hide identities and illustrate lessons learned. However, software improvements involve more than just process. They might entail justifying capital investments, moving to product line architectures, or valuing the purchase price to be paid for a firm. This is not a cookbook on business cases. Cookbooks by their nature infer that results are repeatable. Put a pinch of this and an ounce of that together and bake the mixture at 400 degrees for 10 minutes and a similar result will be generated almost every time. However, the improvement opportunities I’ve been associated with, even when conducted within similar organizations, are by their nature different almost every time. That’s because there are so many factors involved that it is almost impossible to develop a generic formula for improvement. In response, I provide a process framework, not recipes, for making improvements. The underlying message of this book is that there needs to be some compelling reason for making organizational changes or proposed improvements. Otherwise, why pursue them? Within this context, business cases are used to gather and present the facts needed to show that your proposals are worth the effort involved. What Is a Business Case? In this book, I use the term business case to refer to the materials you would use to show decision makers that the idea under consideration is a good one and that the numbers that surround it make financial sense. The focus is primarily on the numbers. Topics encompassed include breakeven, cost effectiveness, and cost/benefit analysis. That’s where I got the idea for the subtitle, Improvement by the Numbers. Organization of the Book The table on page xv shows you the organization of the book and summarizes the emphasis provided in each of its nine chapters and two appendices. The Unifying Glue I use the Goals-Question-Metrics framework and the business case development process that I explain in Chapter 2 as the glue to hold this book together. This framework emphasizes the use of quantitative methods throughout the software life cycle to select technical improvement options under consideration by their quantitative costs/benefits. It also helps those making improvements to identify the feasible options that will solve the organization’s real problems, not the symptoms. This is important because many organizations treat the symptoms, instead of the root causes of their problem, with action. Unique Features Addison-Wesley hosts a Web site at [A