Understanding the five immutable principles to project success will help project managers deliver on time, on budget when talking projects of any size, in any domain
SOLVING PROJECT ALLOCATION RESOURCE PROBLEMS WITH AEROSPACE ERPKevin West
Defence manufacturing is all about project manufacturing and project accounting. And that means enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for defence manufacturing must include robust functionality for project management and specifically project cost allocation.
Increasing the Probability of Project Success with Five Principles and PracticesGlen Alleman
There are many approaches to managing projects in every domain.
This seminar lays the foundations for increasing the probability of project success, no matter the domain, what technology, what approach to delivering the outcomes of the project.
The principles of this approach are immutable.
The practices for implementing the principles are universally applicable.
Each chart in this presentation, contains guidance that can be applied to your project, no matter the domain.
In our short hour here, we’re going to cover a lot of material.
The bibliography contains the supporting materials we can tailor to your individual project
What Makes a Good Concept of Operations?Glen Alleman
A Concept of Operations is a user-oriented document the describes system characteristics for a proposed systems from the User's perspective. The CONOPs also describes the user organization, mission, and objectives form the integrated systems point of view and is used to communicates overall qualitative and quantitative characteristics to the stakeholders.
Resource Paper of Enterprise-Wide Deployment of EDMGlen Alleman
The acquisition of an Enterprise–wide software system requires careful planning and execution of a multitude of activities unrelated to the actual software systems being deployed.
The Role of the Architect in ERP and PDM System DeploymentGlen Alleman
The architect’s role in the development of an ERP or PDM system is to maintain the integrity of the vision statement produced by the owners, users, and funders of the system.
Understanding the five immutable principles to project success will help project managers deliver on time, on budget when talking projects of any size, in any domain
SOLVING PROJECT ALLOCATION RESOURCE PROBLEMS WITH AEROSPACE ERPKevin West
Defence manufacturing is all about project manufacturing and project accounting. And that means enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for defence manufacturing must include robust functionality for project management and specifically project cost allocation.
Increasing the Probability of Project Success with Five Principles and PracticesGlen Alleman
There are many approaches to managing projects in every domain.
This seminar lays the foundations for increasing the probability of project success, no matter the domain, what technology, what approach to delivering the outcomes of the project.
The principles of this approach are immutable.
The practices for implementing the principles are universally applicable.
Each chart in this presentation, contains guidance that can be applied to your project, no matter the domain.
In our short hour here, we’re going to cover a lot of material.
The bibliography contains the supporting materials we can tailor to your individual project
What Makes a Good Concept of Operations?Glen Alleman
A Concept of Operations is a user-oriented document the describes system characteristics for a proposed systems from the User's perspective. The CONOPs also describes the user organization, mission, and objectives form the integrated systems point of view and is used to communicates overall qualitative and quantitative characteristics to the stakeholders.
Resource Paper of Enterprise-Wide Deployment of EDMGlen Alleman
The acquisition of an Enterprise–wide software system requires careful planning and execution of a multitude of activities unrelated to the actual software systems being deployed.
The Role of the Architect in ERP and PDM System DeploymentGlen Alleman
The architect’s role in the development of an ERP or PDM system is to maintain the integrity of the vision statement produced by the owners, users, and funders of the system.
Planning projects usually starts with tasks and milestones. The planner gathers this information from the participants – customers, engineers, subject matter experts. This information is usually arranged in the form of activities and milestones. PMBOK defines “project time management” in this manner. The activities are then sequenced according to the projects needs and mandatory dependencies.
Estimating agile development in the Federal Government domain requires more than just defining Story Points and planning Sprints. These estimates must follow the guidance in OMB A-11 Part 7 and other document based management of budget and performance measures.
Starting with the development of a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) estimate of work and duration, creating the Product Roadmap and Release Plan, the Product and Sprint Backlogs, executing and statusing the Sprint, and informing the Earned Value Management Systems, using Physical Percent Complete of progress to plan.
Design Patterns in Electronic Data ManagementGlen Alleman
The concept of a design pattern is based on the seminal work of Christopher Alexander
This White Paper describes the design patterns that are applicable to the Electronic Document Management domain. These include Management of Change, Hypermedia Navigation, Aggregated Relationships, Object to Relational Database Mapping, Compound Documents, and Data Entry Management.
From Principles to Strategies for Systems EngineeringGlen Alleman
From Principles to Strategies How to apply Principles, Practices, and Processes of Systems Engineering to solve complex technical, operational,
and organizational problems
IS EARNED VALUE + AGILE A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN?
Increasing the Probability of Program Success requires by connecting the dots between EV and Agile Development.
Presented at
The Nexus of Agile Software Development and
Earned Value Management, OSD-PARCA,
February 19 – 20, 2015
Institute for Defense Analysis, Alexandria, VA
Project Success: The Basis of the Five Immutable PrinciplesGlen Alleman
Some people in the field talk about the “basic tenets” of project management. Where do these come from? Some say they come from hands-on experience, anecdotal “best practices,” and the good old “school of hard knocks.”
Published in The Public Manager, Vol. 43, No. 3, Fall 2014
The Building Information Model track is planned for EVM World this spring. In the last edition of The Measureable News we had a bibliography of BIM papers. Here are some more.
The WBS is the touchstone of all work activities, cost, schedule, and technical performance on the program.
It describes technical, process, and programmatic deliverables over the life of the program
It describes how these deliverables are related through a well formed tree structure – parents and children – defined by MIL-STD-881C
It describes how costs are assigned to this work and these costs roll up to their parents in Control Account and CLINS to the Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB)
Nicholas Carr’s, Does IT Matter? asks the question – “isn’t it enough for IT to enable companies to operate more efficiently or deliver better services, to reduce costs or heighten customer satisfaction?” [1, p. 7]. This question is the infrastructure question. Carr suggests the investments in IT have “gone to waste” after the collapse of the Internet Bubble. While much has been wasted to what were probably poor business choices, IT investment as a strategic initiative still has merit. This merit needs to be connected to the financial performance of the business. The measurement and valuation of these investments must take place in the same way other investment decisions are made. Carr’s thesis is IT has become a commodity service and not the basis of a differentiated strategic advantage. As the costs of IT go down, its power increases the capabilities of IT outstrip the company’s needs. Again this is an infrastructure view of IT. Like the railroads and electric utilities, if is only a “utility” it will have difficulty describing its differentiated advantage.
ER Publication,
IJETR, IJMCTR,
Journals,
International Journals,
High Impact Journals,
Monthly Journal,
Good quality Journals,
Research,
Research Papers,
Research Article,
Free Journals, Open access Journals,
erpublication.org,
Engineering Journal,
Science Journals,
Planning projects usually starts with tasks and milestones. The planner gathers this information from the participants – customers, engineers, subject matter experts. This information is usually arranged in the form of activities and milestones. PMBOK defines “project time management” in this manner. The activities are then sequenced according to the projects needs and mandatory dependencies.
Estimating agile development in the Federal Government domain requires more than just defining Story Points and planning Sprints. These estimates must follow the guidance in OMB A-11 Part 7 and other document based management of budget and performance measures.
Starting with the development of a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) estimate of work and duration, creating the Product Roadmap and Release Plan, the Product and Sprint Backlogs, executing and statusing the Sprint, and informing the Earned Value Management Systems, using Physical Percent Complete of progress to plan.
Design Patterns in Electronic Data ManagementGlen Alleman
The concept of a design pattern is based on the seminal work of Christopher Alexander
This White Paper describes the design patterns that are applicable to the Electronic Document Management domain. These include Management of Change, Hypermedia Navigation, Aggregated Relationships, Object to Relational Database Mapping, Compound Documents, and Data Entry Management.
From Principles to Strategies for Systems EngineeringGlen Alleman
From Principles to Strategies How to apply Principles, Practices, and Processes of Systems Engineering to solve complex technical, operational,
and organizational problems
IS EARNED VALUE + AGILE A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN?
Increasing the Probability of Program Success requires by connecting the dots between EV and Agile Development.
Presented at
The Nexus of Agile Software Development and
Earned Value Management, OSD-PARCA,
February 19 – 20, 2015
Institute for Defense Analysis, Alexandria, VA
Project Success: The Basis of the Five Immutable PrinciplesGlen Alleman
Some people in the field talk about the “basic tenets” of project management. Where do these come from? Some say they come from hands-on experience, anecdotal “best practices,” and the good old “school of hard knocks.”
Published in The Public Manager, Vol. 43, No. 3, Fall 2014
The Building Information Model track is planned for EVM World this spring. In the last edition of The Measureable News we had a bibliography of BIM papers. Here are some more.
The WBS is the touchstone of all work activities, cost, schedule, and technical performance on the program.
It describes technical, process, and programmatic deliverables over the life of the program
It describes how these deliverables are related through a well formed tree structure – parents and children – defined by MIL-STD-881C
It describes how costs are assigned to this work and these costs roll up to their parents in Control Account and CLINS to the Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB)
Nicholas Carr’s, Does IT Matter? asks the question – “isn’t it enough for IT to enable companies to operate more efficiently or deliver better services, to reduce costs or heighten customer satisfaction?” [1, p. 7]. This question is the infrastructure question. Carr suggests the investments in IT have “gone to waste” after the collapse of the Internet Bubble. While much has been wasted to what were probably poor business choices, IT investment as a strategic initiative still has merit. This merit needs to be connected to the financial performance of the business. The measurement and valuation of these investments must take place in the same way other investment decisions are made. Carr’s thesis is IT has become a commodity service and not the basis of a differentiated strategic advantage. As the costs of IT go down, its power increases the capabilities of IT outstrip the company’s needs. Again this is an infrastructure view of IT. Like the railroads and electric utilities, if is only a “utility” it will have difficulty describing its differentiated advantage.
ER Publication,
IJETR, IJMCTR,
Journals,
International Journals,
High Impact Journals,
Monthly Journal,
Good quality Journals,
Research,
Research Papers,
Research Article,
Free Journals, Open access Journals,
erpublication.org,
Engineering Journal,
Science Journals,
What is Quality ||
Software Quality Metrics ||
Types of Software Quality Metrics ||
Three groups of Software Quality Metrics ||
Customer Satisfaction Metrics ||
Tools used for Quality Metrics/Measurements ||
PERT and CPM ||
IJERA (International journal of Engineering Research and Applications) is International online, ... peer reviewed journal. For more detail or submit your article, please visit www.ijera.com
How Should We Estimate Agile Software Development Projects and What Data Do W...Glen Alleman
Estimating techniques for an acquisition program progresses from analogies to actual cost method as the program matures and more information is known. The analogy method is most appropriate early in the program life cycle when the system is not yet fully defined.
This presentation describes:
- What is software size?
- How to Measure Software size?
- Techniques and parameters in Software Size estimation
- Where and how to apply the techniques?
Online dating system management project report.pdfKamal Acharya
The objective of our project is to develop an application that offers online dating services where individuals or users can find and contact each other over the internet to arrange a date usually with the objective of developing a romantic, personal and sexual relationship.
Users of an online dating service would currently provide personal information, to enable them to search the service provider's database for other individuals. Members use grade other members set, such as age range, gender and location.
Similar to DHS - Using functions points to estimate agile development programs (v2) (20)
Increasing the Probability of Project SuccessGlen Alleman
Risk Management is essential for development and production programs. Information about key cost, performance and schedule attributes are often uncertain or unknown until late in the program.
Risk issues that can be identified early in the program, which may potentially impact the program, termed Known Unknowns, can be alleviated with good risk management. -- Effective Risk Management 2nd Edition, Page 1, Edmund Conrow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2003
Cost and schedule growth for complex projects is created when unrealistic technical performance expectations, unrealistic cost and schedule estimates, inadequate risk assessments, unanticipated technical issues, and poorly performed and ineffective risk management, contribute to project technical and programmatic shortfalls
Building a Credible Performance Measurement BaselineGlen Alleman
Establishing a credible Performance Measurement Baseline, with a risk adjusted Integrated Master Plan and Integrated Master Schedule, starts with the WBS and connects Technical Measures of progress to Earned Value
Capabilities‒Based Planning the capabilities needed to accomplish a mission or fulfill a business strategy
Only when capabilities are defined can we start with requirements elicitation
Program Management Office Lean Software Development and Six SigmaGlen Alleman
Successfully combining a PMO, Agile, and Lean / 6 starts with understanding what benefit each paradigm brings to the table. Architecting a solution for the enterprise requires assembling a “Systems” with processes, people, and principles – all sharing the goal of business improvement.
This resource document describes the Program Governance Road map for product development, deployment, and sustainment of products and services in compliance with CMS guidance, ITIL IT management, CMMI best practices, and other guidance to assure high quality software is deployed for sustained operational success in mission critical domains.
Seven Habits of a Highly Effective agile project managerGlen Alleman
Recent neurological studies indicate that the role of emotion in human cognition is essential; emotions are not a luxury. Instead, emotions play a critical role in rational decision–making, in perception, in human interaction, and in human intelligence. Habits are the intersection of knowledge, skill, and desire.
The 5 Immutable principles of project managementGlen Alleman
Software development methods are sometimes confused with Project Management principles. There are 5 irreducible principles used to manage projects, no matter the domain or context. We need to assure our development work is guided by these 5 Project Management principles.
Key Trends Shaping the Future of Infrastructure.pdfCheryl Hung
Keynote at DIGIT West Expo, Glasgow on 29 May 2024.
Cheryl Hung, ochery.com
Sr Director, Infrastructure Ecosystem, Arm.
The key trends across hardware, cloud and open-source; exploring how these areas are likely to mature and develop over the short and long-term, and then considering how organisations can position themselves to adapt and thrive.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on the notifications, alerts, and approval requests using Slack for Bonterra Impact Management. The solutions covered in this webinar can also be deployed for Microsoft Teams.
Interested in deploying notification automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 3DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 3. In this session, we will cover desktop automation along with UI automation.
Topics covered:
UI automation Introduction,
UI automation Sample
Desktop automation flow
Pradeep Chinnala, Senior Consultant Automation Developer @WonderBotz and UiPath MVP
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
"Impact of front-end architecture on development cost", Viktor TurskyiFwdays
I have heard many times that architecture is not important for the front-end. Also, many times I have seen how developers implement features on the front-end just following the standard rules for a framework and think that this is enough to successfully launch the project, and then the project fails. How to prevent this and what approach to choose? I have launched dozens of complex projects and during the talk we will analyze which approaches have worked for me and which have not.
Kubernetes & AI - Beauty and the Beast !?! @KCD Istanbul 2024Tobias Schneck
As AI technology is pushing into IT I was wondering myself, as an “infrastructure container kubernetes guy”, how get this fancy AI technology get managed from an infrastructure operational view? Is it possible to apply our lovely cloud native principals as well? What benefit’s both technologies could bring to each other?
Let me take this questions and provide you a short journey through existing deployment models and use cases for AI software. On practical examples, we discuss what cloud/on-premise strategy we may need for applying it to our own infrastructure to get it to work from an enterprise perspective. I want to give an overview about infrastructure requirements and technologies, what could be beneficial or limiting your AI use cases in an enterprise environment. An interactive Demo will give you some insides, what approaches I got already working for real.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
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Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
When stars align: studies in data quality, knowledge graphs, and machine lear...
DHS - Using functions points to estimate agile development programs (v2)
1. DHS ‒ PROGRESS TOWARD USING FUNCTIONS POINTS TO ESTIMATE AGILE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
Glen B. Alleman and Thomas J. Coonce
“Determining the size of system functionality and measuring the performance of
project teams is the basis of successful projects.” [1]
1.0 ‒ Background of Cost Estimating Agile IT Systems at DHS
As DHS embraces the Agile software framework, the development teams describe the
functionality of the desired system in the form of Features and Stories, rather than the traditional
Software Requirements Specification. [2]
As Agile Software Development becomes the basis of
system development at DHS, estimating the cost and duration of these systems becomes
problematic.
The traditional approach of detailed functional user requirements (in terms of elementary fields,
logical files, references to files etc.) producing a measurement of the business value of an
application and the cost to achieve that Value. These detailed requirements are no longer
available in Agile development. In the traditional Function Point measurement methods, the
International Function Point User Group (IFPUG) and Common Software Measurement
International Consortium (COSMIC) approaches can be applied to produce an estimate.
Producing traditional estimates with IFPUG methods can be costly and time consuming and
require high levels of knowledge and experience for those making the estimates.
In Software Intensive System of Systems (SISoS) [3]
implemented in a multi-tier environment,
complexity is created by combinations of integrated systems, real-time applications, and
embedded systems. The original Function Point Analysis was not designed to deal with these
development approaches.
Simple Function Point (SiFP) [4]
is an Agile approach to Function Point Analysis based on two Basic
Functional Components (BFCs) compliant with the IFPUG standard. All the resources and
contractual frameworks developed for IFPUG are valid for Simple FP as well, starting from the
ISBSG productivity data base.
Estimation and project metrics based on functional sizing are good practices,
regardless of the delivery framework used ‒ Agile or Traditional. They allow the
project team to provide the business with realistic expectations of project cost
and duration and to measure themselves against improvement goals and the
industry. [5]
1
“Implementing an Estimating Process,” Tom Dekkers, Software Estimation Series, Galorath
2
“Developing Operational Requirements: A Guide to the Cost-Effecrtive and Efficient Communication of Needs,”
Version 2.0, Department of Homeland Security, November 2008.
3
ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2011, Systems and Software Engineering ‒ Architecture Description
4
“Simple Function Point Size Measurement Method Reference Manual,” SiFP-01.00-RM-EN-01.01, 2014
5
“Is Function Point Analysis Valuable in an Agile Environment?” Tony Manno, DCG Blog, January 4, 2016
2. 2.0 ‒ Assessment of Selected Concept of Operations (ConOps)
Software sizing, using Agile development, starts with a Concept of Operations (ConOps). A
CONOPS is the high-level description of the actions to be taken in the pursuit of mission
accomplishment.
A well formed ConOps describes the characteristics of the proposed system form the point of
view of the individuals using the system. Our work examined several ConOps. It was not the
intent to formally assess these ConOps against specific guidance, but the framework for a good
ConOps is provided in a later section of this report.
1. “Customs and Border Protection International Trade Data System Concept of
Operations,” Public Version 1.3, September 2010.
2. “The Student and Exchange Visitor Program: Operational Requirements Document for the
Student and Exchange Visitor Information System Modernization,” August 3, 2016.
3. “The Student and Exchange Visitor Program: Concept of Operations for the Student and
Exchange Visitor Information System Modernization,” August 16, 2016.
4. “Concept of Operations (CONOPS), Version 1.2, Next-Generation Incident Command
System (NICS),” 17 August 2016
5. “Homeland Security Geospatial Concept of Operations (GeoCONOPS), Quick Start Guide.
6. “Concept of Operations of CBP’s Predator B Unmanned Aircraft System, FY 2010 Report
to Congress, June 29, 2010.
The framework in §3.0 is applied to each of these ConOps and summarized here:
Attributes Needed for Success
ConOps EI EO EQ ILF EIF
CBP ITDS
A Process flow
oriented
ConOps using
swim lanes and
IDEF0 notation
Inputs
described in
process flow
diagrams with
narratives of
data content
Outputs
described in
process flow
diagrams with
narratives of
data content
Queries labeled
in process flow
diagrams
Files named
with connection
to Inputs,
Outputs, and
Queries
Files named
with connection
to Inputs,
Outputs, and
Queries
SEVP Aug 3 Inputs listed at
high level, but
no connection
to processes
Outputs listed
at high level,
but no
connection to
processes
No queries
listed
No file names
listed
No file names
listed
SEVP Aug 16 Inputs listed at
high level, but
no connection
to processes
Outputs listed
at high level,
but no
connection to
processes
No queries
listed
No file names
listed
No file names
listed
DHS Geospatial
Capabilities
Based approach
with systems,
roles, process
flow and data
flow
Process flow diagrams for each
data type connected to process
systems.
Best practices for each data type
assigned to each scenario for each
stakeholder.
Graphic
examples of
data retrieval
No file names
listed
No file names
listed
3. Attributes Needed for Success
CBP Predator B
Heavily
redacted, but
contains
process models
for operations
of the vehicle
and
connections to
external
systems
Ground and flight data defined
with connections to Near, Mis, and
Far Term operational capabilities
and their systems – payloads, data
links OP Tempo, airspace access,
Collision Avoidance and ATC
Management
No queries
listed
No file names
listed
No file names
listed
3.0 ‒ Conditions for Successful Use of Function Points [6]
Several conditions must exist for Function Point Analysis and Simple Function Point measurement
to be successful. These conditions start with the properly formed Concept of Operations
(ConOps) that must provide the following information develop the Function Point Model:
§ External Inputs (EI) ‒ is an elementary process in which data crosses the boundary from
outside to inside. This data may come from a data input screen or another application.
The data may be used to maintain one or more internal logical files. The data can be
either control information or business information. If the data is control information it
does not have to update an internal logical file.
§ External Output (EO) ‒ An elementary process in which derived data passes across the
boundary from inside to outside. An EO may update an Internal Logic File (ILF). The data
creates reports or output files sent to other applications. These reports and files are
created from one or more internal logical files and external interface file. The following
graphic represents on EO with 2 File Type References (FTR's) there is derived information
that has been derived from the (ILF's)
§ External Inquiries (EQ) ‒ An elementary process with both input and output components
that result in data retrieval from one or more internal logical files and external interface
files. The input process does not update any Internal Logical Files, and the output side
does not contain derived data. The graphic below represents an EQ with two ILF's and no
derived data.
§ Internal Logical Files (ILF) ‒ A User-identifiable group of related data maintained within
the application. This is logic in the form of fixed data managed by the application through
the use of External Input (EI).
§ External Interface Files (EIF) ‒ A user identifiable group of logically related data that is
used for reference purposes only. The data resides entirely outside the application and is
maintained by another application. The external interface file is an internal logical file for
another application.
6
“Simple Function Point Functional Size Measurement Method: Reference Manual, SiFP-01.00-RM-EN-01.01,
March 2014.
4. 4.0 ‒ Moving Toward Successful Estimating of Agile DHS Programs
With the guidelines for developing a properly formed Concept of Operations, deploying a
Function Point Analysis process, using Simple Function Point measurement. Functional User
Requirements (FUR) identify the functional processes. These processes are a set of sub-processes
that are either movements or manipulations of data.
The SiFP method provides advantages to DHS, over traditional Function Point Analysis and other
means of estimating software cost:
§ Easy to apply
§ Easy to learn
§ Less subject to interpretation
§ Less prone to manipulation by developers
§ Easier to keep aligned with the evolutions of the operational system
§ Immediately convertible from IFPUG Function Point Analysis systems
The first step in deploying Function Point estimate for agile programs is derived from Simple
Function Point analysis. There are five elements for the Agile approach
1. Internal Data ‒ managed by the Application
2. External Data ‒ referenced by the application but managed by some other application
3. Inputs ‒ add, change, update, delete internal data
4. Outputs ‒ reports, calculations based in internal or external data
5. Inquiries ‒ search and retrieval of internal or external data
The range of values for each element is determined by the number of data elements involved.
Since the Agile paradigm does not provide detailed information, a range of value can be used
Low
Most
Likely
High
Internal Data 7 10 15
External Fata 5 7 10
Inputs 3 4 6
Outputs 4 5 7
Inquiries 3 4 6
These values can be applied to the User Stories developed from the Features developed from the
Agile Product Roadmap and Release Plan of the project.
A sample User Story from ConOps number 3 listed in Section 2.0 ‒ Concept of Operations
Examined:
Create and maintain nonimmigrant biographical and dependent information in
user accounts that provide schools and sponsors with unique identity.
§ Internal Data ‒ data structures for compliance with DHS data reporting
§ External Data ‒ nonimmigrant biographical data and dependent data
§ Inputs ‒ entry of biographical and dependent data
§ Outputs ‒ unique identify data needed to make decision of candidate’s approval
§ Inquiries – unique identify, biographical information, dependent information
5. The Story description in this example ConOps is likely too simple for use in estimating the work
using Function Points (or any other method).
The ConOps needs to describe the needed Features in the following steps:
§ Identify the application boundary ‒ what boundaries does this story interact with?
§ Identify the functional requirements and logical transactions.
§ Identify the processing components or entities of all logical transactions.
§ Identify the input and output components for each logical transaction.
§ Calculate the logical transaction size to arrive at the unadjusted function point (UFP).
§ Apply the value adjustment factor (VAF) to arrive at the adjusted function point (AFP).
5.0 ‒ Conditions for Success Starts with a Well Formed Concept of Operations [7]
The Concept of Operations is a Systems Engineering document. The DHS Sample Template and
Guidance for the Concept of Operations provides guidance for developing the ConOps. A good
Concept of Operations:
§ Contains the goals, objectives, system components and stakeholders are identified.
§ Captures the Systems Requirements in the form of functions are detailed. These are
documented in section 3.0.
§ Provides end-to-end traceability between operational needs and captured source
requirements.
§ Establishes a high-level basis for requirements that supports the system over its life cycle.
§ Establishes a high-level basis for test planning and system-level test requirements.
§ Supports the generation of operational analysis models (use cases) to test the interfaces.
§ Provides the basis for computation of system capacity.
§ Validates and discover implicit requirements.
There are four major components of the ConOps.
§ The existing system (manual or automated) the user wants to replace.
§ Justification for a new or modified system (including restrictions on that system).
§ A description of the proposed system.
§ Scenarios highlighting use of the system in the user's environment including internal and
external factors.
6.0 ‒ Next Steps
§ Train, support, and mentor the development of credible Concept of Operations for the
sample program.
§ Using the ConOps, Select the sample program to make a cost estimate based on IFPUG
Function Point Analysis or SiFP analysis.
§ Start a repository of data from prior program’s to calibrate FPA database.
7
DHS Acquisition Instruction/Guidebook #102-01-001: Appendix F, located at
https://dau.gdit.com/aqn201a/pdfs/APPENDIX%20F_CONOPS.pdf
6. 7.0 ‒ References
Here are a small set of guidance and examples of making estimates of Agile software
development using Function Points. The Simple Function Point site has guidance as well as Case
Studies that can be the starting point for the Next Steps.
1. Software Project Effort Estimation: Foundations and Best Practice Guidelines for Success,
Adam Trendowicz and Ross Jeffery, Springer, 2016
2. “Using Function Points in Agile Projects,” Célio Santana, Fabiana Leoneo, Alexandre
Vasconcelos, and Cristine Gusmão, Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, May
2011.
3. “From Story Points to COSMIC Function Points in Agile Software Development – A Six Sigma
perspective,” Thomas Fehlmann and Luca Santillo, MetriKon 2010, COSMIC.
4. “Incorporating Vital Factors in Agile Estimation through Algorithmic Method,” S. Bhalerao and
Maya Ingle, International Journal of Computer Science and Applications, 2009
Technomathematics Research Foundation, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 85 – 97.
5. “Developing Operational Requirements: A Guide to the Cost-Effective and Efficient
Communication of Needs,” Version 2.0, November 2008, Editor: Thomas A. Cellucci,
Department of Homeland Security.
6. “Guideline for Sizing Agile Projects with COSMIC,” Sylvie Trudel and Luigi Buglione,
IWSM/MetriKon 2010.
7. “Improving the User Story Agile Technique Using the INVEST Criteria,” Luigi Buglione and
Alain Abran, 2013 Joint Conference of the 23nd International Workshop on Software
Measurement (IWSM) and the Eighth International Conference on Software Process and
Product Measurement (Mensura), Ankara, Turkey, 2013.
8. ISO/IEC 19761:2011 Software engineering -- COSMIC: a functional size measurement method
9. “Simple Function Point: A New Functional Size Measurement Method Fully Compliant with
IFPUG 4.x,” Roberto Meli, Proceedings 8th
Software Measurement European Forum, Rome
2011.
10. “Simple Function Point Functional Size Measurement Methods: Reference Manual, SiFP-
01.00-RM-EN-01.01, 2014
11. “Function Points and Agile ‒ Hand in Hand,” Amol Kumar Keote, Accenture India Delivery
Centre, 2010.
12. Appendix B: DHS Systems Engineering Life Cycle (SELC), Part 1, Version 2.0, September 2010,
Acquisition Program Management Division (APMD) and Office of Chief Information Office.
13. “Simple Function Point: A New Functional Size Measurement Method Fully Compliable with
IFPUG FP, 2011.
14. “Simple Function Point Functional Size Measurement Methods: Measurement Examples,”
SiFP-01.00-EX-EN-01.01.
15. Progress Function Points Analysis: Advanced Estimation Techniques for IT Projects, Ruben
Gerad Mathew and Anna Bandura, CreateSpace Independent Publishing 10 September 2014.
16. Function Point Analysis: Measurement Practices for Successful Software Projects, David
Garmus and David Herron, Addison-Wesley, 2000.