Software Estimation BlogInformation on Cost Estimation & Software Estimating

Packaged Applications – The Hidden Costs of Snake-Oil

By David DeWitt

Most of us remember the dubious “doctor” in Huckleberry Finn who proclaims to have the cure for any malady.  From the back of the crowd his shill would loudly proclaim that he himself had been healed by the magical elixir.   Oh my, but the quantity of snake oil they sold before the townsfolk discovered they had been duped – and the doctor long gone.   From the tone of many internet blogs it seems the same buyer’s remorse is lingering in the “Packaged Application” world.

Before we get into the discussion of packaged applications let’s take a step back and remember how these wonder cures manifested.   In the late 1980’s – (when disco was dying) manufacturing companies wanted to shape supply chain management and enterprise resource planning.  In short, they wanted to encourage the concept of a “process in a box.” (my quotes).  Somehow over the last ten years the industry has forgotten that part about the need for the organizational “process” to change; and as we shall see, that is a key cause of hidden costs.

To belabor the point of “snake oil” for just a moment longer – what exactly is a packaged application?

1.       You can’t see the ingredients (What is the quality of the code?)

2.       You don’t know the recipe (How was it developed?)

3.       You don’t know how it’s to be served (Is it designed for my architecture?)

4.       When done – you hope it won’t upset your stomach (Will it run on or corrupt my databases?)

But it heals the sick and will bring peace and joy to the world … if it’s configured just right!

The top ten hidden costs are – in no specific order:

Read the rest of this entry »

By know you should have a pretty good idea on what project software estimation is and how it works, but I bet you’re wondering just who uses software estimation. The blanket term, software estimation, is often applied to software which is so powerful that it can be used to ease otherwise cumbersome ordeals like estimating IT projects, or taking over the world. In these circumstances, software estimation helps prevents missteps that would cause a product to fall behind and thus not ship on time.

Ta-da!

But what else can project software estimation do? Could it, by chance, rock? You’re darn right it can. Both iTunes and the Zune packed a mild form of software estimation into their latest versions with the iTunes “Genius” and Zune’s “mixview”. How are these considered software estimation? We’ll, both programs take a look at the listeners current library and make recommendations based on what they already listen to. Pandora uses a similar tactic, but breaks down songs into their attributes, and then builds a radio station off of those shared attributes. Mog.com, a social network, finds friends and creates social networks based on the songs in a user’s library and how often they listen to them.

Of course, software estimation is used in a lot of other areas. Another term for software estimation is software recommendation. Basically anytime a computer recommends something for you – be it a product on Amazon.com or a website on Google, what happened in the background is some sort of software estimation.

This makes the answer to your question, well, most likely you.