ISBSG Resources
ISBSG has a wealth of resources (i.e. reports, articles, conference papers and videos) on a wide range of software management topics. These topics include: productivity, planning and estimation, benchmarking, agile, maintenance and support, project control, outsourcing and sizing your project.
ISBSG resources are written by IT and metrics professionals, who are leaders in their field of expertise.
ISBSG Webinars
ISBSG WebinarsISBSG webinars are presented by guest speakers who share their expertise in software metrics. Choose from our list below.
Software Metrics Supports Business Decisions
Ultimately, measuring performance in agile teams is about: supporting continuous improvement, making informed decisions, ensuring value delivery and fostering a collaborative and learning-oriented culture. By correctly using the right metrics, organizations can empower their agile teams to thrive and deliver exceptional results.
Effort Estimation
There are two fundamental approaches to support software project’s effort and cost estimation: parametric cost models and analogy-based processes. The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a planning tool, often poorly used to support such crucial needs. We must clearly identify, in the WBS, the activities covered by the parametric models and those should be estimated as a result of the expert judgement. The presentation will focus on analyzing these aspects by presenting good and bad practices in the use of these support techniques.
Agile Team Performance Benchmarking
While traditional performance metrics often measure individual output or adherence to pre-defined plans, measuring performance in agile teams requires a different approach. Agile teams operate in iterative cycles, prioritizing adaptability and learning over rigid goals. Organizations still measure their performance for the following reasons: transparency and communication, learning and continuous improvement and ensuring value delivery.
The Benefits of Software Metrics for Product Owners
/in agileIn agile software development, the Product Owner is often caught between the pressure for rapid feature rollout and the need for realistic, data-backed forecasting. Relying on “gut feelings” or inconsistent team-specific metrics, such as story points, makes it nearly impossible to communicate value or manage stakeholder expectations . By adopting standardized functional size measurement (FSM), e.g., Nesma, IFPUG or COSMIC function points, in tandem with ISBSG benchmark data, Product Owners can finally speak a universal language of scope and performance.
Impact of AI on Productivity and Delivery Speed
/in productivityThe software development landscape has recently experienced rapid changes driven by the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. While AI can improve the speed and efficiency of development teams, it also has the potential to lower code quality. This short report uses the ISBSG Repository to determine the impact of AI on key metrics. Comparisons between pre-AI and post-AI data indicate whether the adoption of AI tools has led to positive improvements in the productivity and delivery speed of software projects.Â
Submit Data to ISBSG
/in benchmarkingISBSG’s mission is: to support organizations and help them to improve the estimation, planning, control and management of IT software projects and/or maintenance and support contracts. ISBSG achieves its mission through the collection of data from software development, enhancement, and maintenance projects. This data is submitted to ISBSG by software metrics organizations worldwide. This short report explains how you can assist ISBSG in its support of the software industry. Learn how simple it is to submit your project data and to receive a free benchmark report, in appreciation for your submission.Â
Move High-Code to Low-Code
/in benchmarkingThis short report examines a company’s business case to change the platform of their main system, from high-code to low-code. Current maintenance activities were considered, along with ongoing enhancements to the system. Productivity benchmarks from ISBSG Data Repositories were obtained for low-code projects. This enabled the calculation of potential productivity and cost gains from moving from high to low-code environments. Financial metrics, such as Payback Period, Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Return are also calculated to support the company’s business case.
Price per FP Contract
/in benchmarkingA consultancy firm assisted an IT Services provider to win a large, European government Price-per-FP contract using ISBSG data. The data, for more than 11000 software projects, provided valuable benchmarks that were used to compare productivity and cost. This enabled the IT Services provider to produce a competitive price-per-FP offer that beat 20 rival bidders. Learn about the strategic value of ISBSG benchmarks in fixed-price, functional sizing contracts.
Benchmarking Agile Development Teams
/in benchmarkingA telecommunications provider faced challenges in assessing the performance of its agile development teams, working on Java-based projects. The company lacked a standardized approach to measure key performance indicators. It was unable to determine how the team compared to industry standards. A lack of data-driven insights prevented the company from identifying areas of improvement. The benchmarking process used to evaluate the agile development teams relied upon ISBSG data. It involved a structured, data-driven approach to measure productivity, delivery speed, cost efficiency, and process quality. The process was designed to compare the company’s internal performance metrics against ISBSG’s industry benchmarks to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement.