The performance of software projects across the industry and around the world.
Insights into the development and enhancement of different application types.
Examine the costs of software development by comparing the cost per function point and the cost per hour/s of effort.
The effort allocated to each phase of the development lifecycle.
Insights into the maintenance and support of software projects.
See the full range of ISBSG reports, grouped by area of interest, below. This includes current reports and some of our most popular archived reports. Click on a report title for more details.
Software Industry Performance (SIP)
Last updated: 2013. The IT software industry is often the subject of damning media reports, with continual tales of software development projects that have been abandoned at great cost, or are orders of magnitude over budget and/or duration. As the decades roll by the disasters continue. Or do they?
Have we learnt anything over fifty years of commercial software development? Is the IT industry performing better now than it was 20 years ago?
The SIP report is based on research performed by the ISBSG using data submitted to its Development and Enhancement repository. The report includes analysis of the following:
“The Software Industry Performance (SIP) report is an excellent study with valuable and thought-provoking results”, says Capers Jones, Chief Scientist Emeritus of Software Productivity Research (SPR). “I will certainly recommend the SIP report to my clients and colleagues”.
Software Development Performance by Country
Last updated: 2014. Using the projects in the ISBSG Development & Enhancement repository, this report looks at the characteristics of software development for thirteen countries. This twenty-six page report includes the following insights for each country:
Government & Non-Government Software Project Performance
Last updated: 2011. This report compares government and non-government software projects; government out-sourced and in-house developed projects. It examines differences in productivity, team size, programming languages and other project characteristics.
The report answers the following questions:
1. How do software projects, undertaken to support the business of government, compare to non-government projects?
2. How do outsourced and in-house software projects undertaken for government organisations compare?
3. How do government software project teams compare to those operating outside of government?
The Performance of Business Application, Real-Time & Component Software Projects
Last updated: 2012. An Analysis that compares the differences in development and enhancement projects for three different software types.
This 48 page report provides valuable insight into the development and enhancement performance of 3 different types of applications: Business, Real-Time and Infrastructure.
The analysis results underline the importance of treating these 3 types of applications differently when estimating and benchmarking. Project Delivery Rates and Duration times are provided along with useful charts of the correlations of Effort, Productivity and Duration to software size. The productivity rates of different Programming Languages are compared, as is the impact of software size on productivity.
This report is especially valuable for people interested in Real-Time and Component Software Projects (Infrastructure).
Managing Your Maintenance & Support Environment
Last updated: 2023. We aim to provide useful information to help with the planning and management of Maintenance and Support functions. This information can be used to better manage internal or outsourced maintenance and support.
This report provides insight into the following:
Early Lifecycle Software Estimation
Last updated 2023: It’s important to have indicative estimates, early in the lifecycle of a software project. These estimates indicate whether a project concept is feasible.
In this report, we show how to use to produce early estimates for your projects. This is achieved by using key information about your project (i.e. size), along with similar projects from the ISBSG Data Repository. The ISBSG Data is used to create regression equations, in Microsoft Excel, that can be used to generate estimates for your project.
Project Durations by Size and Effort
Last updated: 2010. Effort and duration are the 2 main factors that are sought from software estimation exercises. Software customers want to know how long it will take to develop the software and how much it will cost. Cost can be derived once the effort is known.
This Special Analysis Report concentrates on project duration. The report provides useful information that can be used to obtain an approximate duration for a software project based on the known software size or effort; or to provide a “reality check” of an existing estimate of duration.
Planning Projects – Phase Effort Ratios
Last updated: 2017. The ISBSG collects data about the effort for each of the 6 phases of a project: Plan, Specify, Design, Build, Test and Implement. Knowing the percentage ratios of these phases is important for project estimation, management and benchmarking.
This report presents these phase ratios for both enhancement and new development projects and provides and example of their use.
Project Planning - Project Phase Ratios
Last updated: 2023. In project estimation, many cost estimators use the following simple approach:
Project Delivery Rate (hours per Function Point) = Total number of effort hours required for the project.
However, how can the results of this estimate translate that into the requirements for specific expertise? How many designers, developers, testers are necessary? The Project Phase Ratios discussed in this report can help with these questions. They are also relevant when analyzing the performance of (agile) development teams. Note that the project phases discussed in this
report include: Plan, Specify, Design, Build, Test and Implement.
Software Project Costs
Last updated: 2016. In this report we look at costs per function point and costs per hour, and provide some useful rules of thumb.
Software Project Estimates - How Accurate Are They?
Last updated: 2012. We look at estimates of size, effort, duration and cost; how people have gone about estimating their projects; the accuracy of the estimates and the relationships between estimates. Here are some of the findings:
Team Size Impact on Project Delivery Rate
Last updated: 2010. Despite the legendary ‘Mythical Man Month’, software project estimation often ignores the impact of team size. Adding more people to a project can have a negative impact on productivity and duration. The ISBSG data clearly shows this.
This Special Analysis Report looks at the impact that both team size and software size have on productivity. The report provides data in tables and charts, as well as examples that you can use to produce more accurate estimates by taking into account the impact of team size and software size when you are estimating.