Productivity measurement and management tool

• US 7,640,531 B1
• Filed: 06/14/2004
• Issued: 12/29/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Akram, Abdul G., Vinodkrishnan, Nalledath, Branch, Bill G. Jr., Srinivasan, Lavanya
• Primary Examiner(s): Bullock, Jr.; Lewis A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wang; Jue S
• Application Number:
  US10/867,074
• Time in Patent Office: 2,024 Days
• Field of Search: 705/400, 717/100, 717/101
• US Class Current: 717/101
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A system for managing and monitoring a project to be developed is provided. The system includes a first and a second document, the first document identifies a first set of interactions between a plurality of applications. The first set of interactions identifies functionality of the project to be developed. The second document identifies a second set of interactions within at least one of the applications. The second set of interactions identifies additional functionality of the project. The system also includes a baseline document and an estimator component. The baseline document identifies existing functions of interactions between the applications and existing functions of interactions within applications. The estimator component is operable to access the first, second, and baseline document and to count a number of interactions identified in the first and second sets of interactions not identified in the baseline document of existing functions of interactions.

Claims

1. A method for electronically managing application development, comprising:

providing an interface control document containing a first set of one or more sequence diagrams that model interactions between a plurality of applications, each of the plurality of applications including a plurality of software components, classes, or objects;

providing an application model document containing a second set of one or more sequence diagrams that model interactions within one or more of the plurality of applications, wherein interactions modeled in the first set of sequence diagrams and the second set of sequence diagrams include a plurality of types of modeled interactions, the plurality of types of modeled interactions includes two or more of group consisting of internal logical files types of interactions, external interfaces files types of interactions, external inputs types of interactions, external outputs types of interactions, and external queries types of interactions;

defining a project for development, at least some of a plurality of functionalities of the project defined based on the modeled interactions provided in the interface control document and the application model document;

providing a baseline document containing a third list of existing interactions related to one or more of the plurality of applications;

generating a count reflecting a total number of business operation points based on each of the plurality of types of interactions in the interface control document and the application model document which are not associated with existing interactions in the third list contained in the baseline document, wherein the business operation points include interactions between applications and interactions within an application between components of the application, but do not include data functions of the applications or interactions with external non-application actors; and

estimating a level of effort to complete the project based on multiplying the total number of business operation points based on each of the plurality of types of interactions by a corresponding proportionality constant and summing a result of the multiplying for all of the plurality of types of interactions.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the estimating involves using information from a plurality of completed projects to map the count to the level of effort.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

averaging across the plurality of completed projects to produce an average level of effort per interaction, wherein the proportionality constant is the average level of effort per interaction.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

selecting, by an operator, the plurality of completed projects, wherein the plurality of selected completed projects are similar to the project.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the estimating involves using information from one or more completed projects selected from a plurality of completed projects based on a similar type of the completed projects to the project, and wherein the information from one or more completed projects is maintained electronically.

6. The method of claim 1 further including calibrating the level of effort based on a type of the project.

7. The method of claim 1, further including calculating a productivity metric based on the level of effort expended to complete the project.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the baseline document comprises one or more interface control documents and one or more application model documents associated with previous projects and wherein the existing interactions are further defined as identified in a plurality of sequence diagrams contained in the one or more interface control and application model documents.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the proportionality constant is one of a linear or a non-linear proportionality constant.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimation of the level of effort is adjusted based on a type of the project.

11. A system for managing a project to be developed, comprising:

an interface control document stored on a computer-readable storage medium modeling a first set of interactions between a plurality of applications through one or more sequence diagrams, the plurality of applications including a plurality of software components, classes, or objects, and the first set of interactions identifying functionality of the project;

an application model document stored on a computer-readable storage medium modeling a second set of interactions within at least one of the plurality of applications through one or more sequence diagrams, the second set of interactions identifying additional functionality of the project, wherein the first set of interactions and the second set of interactions include a plurality of types of interactions, the plurality of types of interactions includes two or more of group consisting of internal logical files types of interactions, external interfaces files types of interactions, external inputs types of interactions, external outputs types of interactions, and external queries types of interactions;

a baseline document stored on a computer-readable storage medium identifying existing interactions between the plurality of applications and existing interactions within the plurality of applications;

an estimator component stored on a computer-readable storage medium that accesses the interface control document, the application model document, and baseline document and counts a number of business operation points based on the interactions identified in the first and second sets of interactions not identified in the baseline document of existing interactions, wherein a first count of the number of business operation points based on the interactions identified in the interface control document is weighted differently relative to a second count of the number of business operation points based on the interactions in the application model document, and wherein the business operation points include interactions between applications and interactions within an application between components of the application, but do not include the components of the applications themselves or interactions with external non-application entities.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the estimator estimates a level of effort of the project based on multiplying the count of the number of business operation points by a proportionality constant.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the estimator calculates a productivity metric based on the count of the number of business operation points and on a level of effort expended to complete the project.

14. The system of claim 11 further including a database containing a historical information including a level of effort expended to deliver a plurality of business operation points providing functionality to a plurality of completed projects and wherein the estimator component accesses the database and estimates a level of effort of the project based on the count and on the historical information.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein the baseline document comprises one or more interface control documents and one or more application model documents and wherein the existing interactions are identified in a plurality of sequence diagrams contained in the interface control documents and the application model documents of the baseline document.

16. The system of claim 11 wherein the first and second sets of interactions are further defined as business operation points.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein at least one of the interactions identified in the first and second sets of interactions and not identified in the baseline document occur multiple times in the first or second sets of interaction, and wherein the estimator component only counts the at least one of the interactions once in the count of the number of interactions.

18. A method of managing application development, comprising:

maintaining, in a first document, a first list of interactions between a plurality of applications;

maintaining, in a second document, a second list of interactions within one or more of the plurality of applications;

maintaining, in a third document, a third list of existing interactions;

providing a tool that communicates with the first, the second, and the third documents;

using the tool to count a number of business operation points based on the interactions in the first list and the second list, the tool monitors the third list and reduces the count for interactions in the first list and the second list having associated existing interactions in the third list, wherein the first list of interactions and the second list of interactions include a plurality of types of interactions, the plurality of types of interactions includes two or more of group consisting of internal logical files types of interactions, external interfaces files types of interactions, external inputs types of interactions, external outputs types of interactions, and external queries types of interactions, and wherein the business operation points include interactions between applications and interactions within an application between components of the application, but do not include the components of the applications themselves or interactions with external non-application entities;

measuring hours expended developing the application;

calculating a productivity metric for developing the application based on a count of business operation points delivered by an outsourcing firm developing the application and the hours expended by the outsourcing firm developing the application;

calculating a productivity rate of change based on the productivity metric of the outsourcing firm for developing the one or more applications and a productivity metric of the outsourcing firm for developing a previous one or more applications; and

designing incentive packages for the outsourcing firm based on the productivity rate of change.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the interactions and existing interactions define business operations points and wherein the tool calculates the net business operation points for development of the application.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising determining a total cost for development of the application based on the count.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein the first document is further defined as an interface control document and wherein the first list of interactions is further defined as one or more sequence diagrams within the interface control document.

22. The method of claim 18 wherein the second document is further defined as an application model document and wherein the second list of interactions is further defined as one or more sequence diagrams within the application model document.

23. The method of claim 18 wherein the third document comprises one or more interface control document and one or more application model documents each having one or more sequence diagrams related to the previously developed one or more applications.