Although the dot.com bubble was a serious crisis for software and technology companies, it was not the only bubble to burst during the decade. Starting at the end of 2007 and running through 2010 the country and much of the world encountered what has come to be known as “the great recession” which is a paraphrase on “the great depression” which started in 1929. Continue reading
Two more recent examples of collateral damages show that they are still occurring even today. The first was in 2009 when the city of Port St. Lucie, Florida and offered substantial incentives to the graphics art company Digital Domain to move a development lab to the area. A massive 115,000 square foot office and studio complex was constructed on the western side of Port St. Lucie and occupied by about 300 software and graphics personnel early in 2012. Continue reading
From working as an expert witness in a number of lawsuits where large software projects were cancelled or did not operate correctly when deployed, four major problems occur repeatedly: 1) Accurate estimates are not produced or are overruled; 2) Requirements changes are not handled effectively; 3) Quality control is deficient; 4) Progress tracking fails to alert higher management to the seriousness of the issues. There are often other problems as well, but these four always occur in breach of contract litigation. Continue reading
INTRODUCTION
There are hundreds or even thousands of commercial tools available for software development, software project management, maintenance, testing, quality control and other key activities associated with software projects. There are also hundreds of proprietary, internal tools which companies build for their own use but not for sale to others. Continue reading
The cost of finding and fixing bugs or defects is the largest single expense element in the history of software. Bug repairs start with requirements and continue through development. After release bug repairs and related customer support costs continue until the last user signs off. Over a 25 year life expectancy of a large software system in the 10,000 function point size range almost 50 cents out of every dollar will go to finding and fixing bugs. Continue reading