1. Your software product :
Future business enabler or show-stopper ?
show-
CEI Workshop
19/09/2012
Felix Bregadze
Nicolas Devos

2. Risk management:
You can’t manage what you don’t measure
Felix BREGADZE
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3. About CETIC
• ICT Research Center
• Mission: Independent expert & transfer agent between
academic world and industry
• 45 Researchers in 3 Departments
• Software and System Engineering
• Focus on Code and Process Quality; on complex system modeling at
requirement and design level
• Software Service Technologies
• Focus on Cloud Services and Service Composition; on Cloud Storage
Strategies; on Semantics for interoperability of heterogeneous data
• Embedded Communicating System
• Focus on low energy/autonomous sensor networks; on architecture
modeling/simulation of low energy embedded system
• Transversal topics: Security, Constrain-based Optimisation, eHealth,
Green ICT & ICT for Green
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4. IT Projects Failure
• Geneca (2010 – 2011)
• 75% of project participants don’t believe in project success
• 78% of participants believe business is out of sync /w
requirements
• KPMG (2010 – 2011)
• 70% of organisations suffered at least 1 project failure in last
12 months
• 50% indicated projects consistently failed to achieve goals
• IBM (2008)
• Projects that met schedule: only 40%
• Underestimation of project complexity is a huge factor
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5. IT Projects Failure
There is a gap between IT and Business
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6. Reality
• For business IT projects must be
• On-time
• Meet budget
• Meet requirements
• But business is evolving and in reality there is:
• Not enough time
• Lack of budget
• Ever-changing requirements
Trade-offs have to be made
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7. Reality
There is no long term vision: IT projects are considered tactical
though they must support strategic business planning
IT Risks are closely related to Business Risks
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8. IT Management Questions
• How do I keep maintenance costs low?
• What happens if one of my developers would leave the
company?
• How to make sure the new version is released on time?
• How to keep up with feature requests?
• How can I do more with less?
Major element to answer the above that is mostly
overlooked : Application Technical Quality
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9. Application Technical Quality
• Application Technical Quality must be managed over time
and as early as possible
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10. Application Technical Quality
You cannot manage what you do not measure
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11. Technical Debt Introduction
• To sum up:
• Gap between Business & IT
• Trade-offs
• Short term vs. long term
• Risks to manage on daily basis
• Technical Debt is the indicator that can be an answer to
above problems
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12. How managers can measure and manage risks
Nicolas DEVOS
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13. Technical Debt
Ward Cunningham
"The WyCash Portfolio Management System",
OOPSLA’92
metaphor referring to the eventual consequences of
poor or evolving software architecture and software
development within a codebase.
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14. How to measure quality?
quality?
Sampling
Expensive and risky, less precision
risky,
Code audit
Faster,
Faster, more reliable and precise
Regular code audit
Automated, integrated,
Automated, integrated,
less correction effort
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15. Source code analyzers
Wide variety of source code analyzers
Principle
Standards and
Rules Violations
best practices
ISO 9126 – 25000 (SQuaRE)
Common language for software quality
Model for Application Quality
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16. Quality model
Application
Quality
Health factors User Driven Business Driven
Performance Robustness Security Maintainability Changeability Transferability
Rules
Error Complexity
Handling
Loop Naming
Documentation Convention
Management
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17. How to compute technical debt?
debt?
Define a quality objective
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18. Attention points
Company
Development Quality
Business
phase Target
Application
type
Depends on
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19. Managing the Technical Debt
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20. Managing the Technical Debt
Technical View
TD
Measure
TD • Maintenance effort increase
Unmanaged • Evolutivity decrease
• Customer satisfaction decrease
TD
Managed
Business View
Dev. &
Time
Maintenance
Cost
If TD
Unmanaged
Direct
If TD
Relationship
Managed
Time
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21. What should we do?
If you see a software component is an asset for your company then you
should assess it (or have it assessed)
• Software code developed by your staff for external or internal purpose
• Software code developed by consultant that you paid for
• Even if software solution is for internal purpose
• Mention Technical Debt threshold in call for tender or contract
• To select Open Source Software
Code audits
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22. What will we gain?
Measuring enables managing
At short term
• Quality overview and development team improvment
• Help in the decision making process
• Interface between financial and technical teams
At long term
• Reduce the maintenance effort
• Risk management
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23. Conclusion - Key takeaways
Technical debt is the cost of lack or non-quality
Measure and manage technical quality of a software asset
Support the decision process In the development cycle
Make it transparent Do more with less
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24. Case Study
WSL (Walloon tech start-ups incubator)
Charles Cuny
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25. MERCI
CETIC
Aéropôle de Charleroi-Gosselies
Rue des Frères Wright, 29/3
6041 Gosselies
info@cetic.be
www.cetic.be