LiveShortand Prosper: Applying Cost Analysis to Routine Software Maintenance Procedures
✍ Scribed by TSIVKIN, VLADIMIR M.
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1996
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 600 KB
- Volume
- 8
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1040-550X
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Purely theoretical models of the software development and maintenance processes enjoy little use in the practical world; 'gut feeling' and hunch enjoy a large following when costeffectiveness is the concern. This paper provides the calculations necessary to compare two methods (an 'all-in-one' method and an 'incremental' method) of transferring a project to quality assurance (QA). This paper compares the results of these calculations with the costs of doing two actual projects, one with each method. Both the calculations and the real projects indicate that QA costs are less when using the 'all-in-one' method. Since the calculations reasonably anticipated the real project experience, this paper argues that making such caIculations has value when choosing between alternative processes. Such calculations are not purely theoretical, but can be used by managers to save money in software development and maintenance.