THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

A short time ago we were at a meeting of IT executives. A major new CIO survey had been released, and, once again, one of the top ten concerns of CIOs is the impact poor requirements have on delivering software on time and on budget. So in the Q&A session, the question was posed: Since the requirements problem has been a top concern of CIOs for at least the last ten years, why hasn’t anyone done anything about it?

The answer was summed up succinctly by one of the CIO panelists: “Requirements are the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about.” Poor requirements specification accounts for about 80% of all software development rework, and rework itself is typically half of the cost of software development overall. So it is a big elephant indeed, especially as budgets get tight in tougher economic times.

Why Is This?

After all, proven, reliable, technology-backed solutions are out there that guarantee correct implementation of requirements into applications with few defects and very low rework costs (we should know; we’ve been doing it for years!). What keeps the requirements problem on the CIO top-ten issues list? We think there are two factors.

How to Improve

First, improving requirements cannot be done by simply buying another tool and some training classes. It also requires changes to roles, responsibilities, and skills, especially in the QA and testing organization. Many IT organizations are simply unwilling or unable to make these changes. Managers are willing to take risks with new technology but unwilling to do so when it comes to changes in how the organization does its work.

Second, the financial rewards for delivering higher-quality software at less cost are difficult to recognize. Suppose the annual software development budget for an IT organization is $2 million. They implement proven requirements validation and testing solutions and remove $500,000 in testing and rework costs (a typical result). How does that “profit” benefit the IT organization? Better salaries? Probably not. More likely, it translates into additional projects or goes to mitigate our chronic tendency to under-estimate software development costs in the first place.

There is, however, an overriding incentive to recognize the elephant: customer satisfaction. When applications and releases are routinely delivered on time and with few, if any, functional defects, the business customer is spared a tremendous amount of frustration and anxiety, not to mention cost. The trust between the business customer and IT goes up substantially. In these times of budget austerity and limited investment, this can be critical to the success of the CIO and the business as a whole. So pack up the elephant gun and let’s go on a safari!

Learn More and Stay in Touch:

• To learn about Critical Logic, independent validation and verification, and the Logic Based Development Process, click here
• We welcome your questions and comments. Contact us at: http://www.critical-logic.com