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IT Management Slideshow:
The Economics of Choosing Business Software

By Dennis McCafferty on 2011-07-29


What does quality software need to do today? It must work on multiple platforms, within a global landscape. It needs to remain compatible with legacy systems, as well as other currently popular software applications. It can’t allow defects to cripple organization objectives. As a CIO, you’re ultimately responsible for these and other software-related demands. If you fail, there are a number of possibly devastating consequences, including rejection by internal or external customers, failure to deliver on strategic business objectives and possibly even a massive onslaught of litigation. The recent book "The Economics of Software Quality" (Addison-Wesley Professional/available now) explores these issues while providing guidance to CIOs and other top tech executives as to how to ensure optimal choice and use of software. Authors Capers Jones and Olivier Bonsignour contend that poor software choices can endanger large-scale development projects, but few organizational tech leaders fully understand the economic and business impact of the wrong software. The book reveals best practices that can generate needed ROI and reduce total cost of ownership. Here are 10 highlights:

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1 million
1 million is the number of instances, on any given day, that U.S. software engineers and tech professionals spend time finding and fixing software bugs.

Key characteristics of quality software:
Fitness of use
Satisfaction of user requirements
Freedom from defects
Ease of learning/use
Rapid repairs of any reported defects

Benefits of high-quality software:
Reduced defects and reduced repair costs
Reduction of chances for large-system cancellations
Abbreviated development schedules and costs
Reduced maintenance costs
Increased internal/external customer satisfaction

Seven best practices for choosing software:
1. Acquire tools to extract algorithms and business rules from legacy application source code. Most new apps are replacements for legacy ones, so legacy algorithms/rules are needed for operations requirements.

Seven best practices for choosing software:
2. Identify and display common generic features used by many similar applications. Three-quarters of features of typical software apps are also used by other applications.

Seven best practices for choosing software:
3. Define test cases as natural byproducts of requirements analysis. The data-mining tool that extracts missing algorithms and business rules from legacy apps should also define test cases at the same time.

Seven best practices for choosing software:
4. Command the dynamic aspects of software apps. When it’s executing, software has more rapidly moving parts than any other known product.

Seven best practices for choosing software:
5. Manage the growth of requirements over time. After deployment, software requirements grow 8% a year, resulting in need for multi-year, multi-release strategy.

Seven best practices for choosing software:
6. Ensure apps operate on a variety of platforms, such as Windows, Linux, Leopard, Android.Modern reality is that apps operate in multiple platforms, available as installed or Web-enabled.

Seven best practices for choosing software:
7. Make software usable in multiple countries. Language translations, currency exchange rates, local laws/policies are all part of the challenge here.

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