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Software engineers often express the value of software in terms of its quality: defects, failure, or customer satisfaction, for example. But business managers must weigh investment in software with other types of investments, and a narrowly-focused software view does not lend itself to investment comparison. In this talk, Pfleeger reviews how software developers have used return on investment inappropriately to demonstrate the effects of techniques such as process improvement. She shows how a standard financial evaluation technique can be useful in comparing software investment with other alternatives, especially when the company's primary business is not software development.
Shari Lawrence Pfleeger is president of Systems/Software, Inc., a consultancy specializing in software quality and software engineering evaluation. She is also Professor of Systems and Computer Science at Howard University, where she directs the Center for Research in Evaluating Software Technology. Pfleeger has written many books and articles on software engineering and mathematics, including "Software Metrics: A Rigorous and Practical Approach" (second edition, with Norman Fenton, International Thomson Press, 1996) and "Applying Software Metrics" (with Paul Oman, IEEE Computer Society Press, 1996). She is associate editor-in-chief of IEEE Software, an advisor to IEEE Spectrum, and a member of the executive council of the IEEE Computer Society's Techncial Council on Software Engineering. She received her PhD in information technology and engineering from George Mason University. |