An Investigation on the Variation of Software Development Productivity
The productivity of software development is one of the major concerns for project managers. Given the increasing complexity of the software being developed and the concomitant rise in the typical project size, the productivity has not consistently improved. By analyzing the latest release of ISBSG data repository with 4106 projects ever developed, we report on the factors found to significantly influence productivity, and present an original model for the estimation of productivity during project design. We further illustrate that software development productivity has experienced irregular variations between the years 1995 and 2005. Considering the factors significant to productivity, we found its variations are primarily caused by the variations of average team size for the development and the unbalanced use of the less productive development language 3GL.
[1] R. S. Pressman, Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach. London:
Mcgraw-Hill, 2001.
[2] S. T. Albin, The Art of Software Architecture: Design Methods and
Techniques. New York: Wiley, 2003.
[3] B. Kitchenham and E. Mendes, "Software productivity measurement
using multiple size measures," IEEE Transactions on Software
Engineering, vol. 30, pp. 1023-1035, 2004.
[4] W. S. Humphrey and N. D. Singpurwalla, "Predicting (individual)
software productivity," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol.
17, pp. 196-207, 1991.
[5] K. D. Maxwell and P. Forselius, "Benchmarking software development
productivity," IEEE Software, vol. 17, pp. 80-88, 2000.
[6] S. Morasca and G. Russo, "An empirical study of software productivity,"
presented at Proceedings of the 25th International Computer Software
and Applications Conference on Invigorating Software Development,
Chicago, 2001.
[7] M. Arnold and P. Pedross, "Software size measurement and productivity
rating in a large-scalesoftware development department," presented at
20th International Conference on Software Engineering, Kyoto, Japan,
1998.
[8] N. R. Howes, "Managing software development projects for maximum
productivity," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. SE10, pp.
27-35, 1984.
[9] J. D. Blackburn, G. D. Scudder, and L. N. V. Wassenhove, "Improving
speed and productivity of software development: a global survey of
software developers," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol.
22, pp. 875-885, 1996.
[10] R. E. Loesh, "Improving productivity through standard design
templates," Data Processing, vol. 27, pp. 57-59, 1985.
[11] G. R. Finnie, G. E. Wittig, and D. Petkov, "Prioritizing software
development productivity factors using the analytic hierarchy process,"
Journal of Systems and Software, vol. 22, pp. 129-139, 1993.
[12] K. Maxwell, L. V. Wassenhove, and S. Dutta, "Software development
productivity of European space, military and industrial applications,"
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 22, pp. 706-718, 1996.
[13] D. N. Card, F. E. McGarry, and G. T. Page, "Evaluating software
engineering technologies," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering,
vol. SE-13, pp. 845-851, 1987.
[14] B. W. Boehm and P. N. Papaccio, "Understanding and Controlling
Software Costs," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 14,
pp. 1462-1477, 1988.
[15] I. R. Chiang and V. S. Mookerjee, "Improving software team
productivity," Communications of the ACM, vol. 47, pp. 89-93, 2004.
[16] D. Anselmo and H. Ledgard, "Measuring productivity in the software
industry," Communications of the ACM, vol. 46, pp. 121-125, 2003.
[17] R. Groth, "Is the software industry's productivity declining?," IEEE
Software, vol. 21, pp. 92-94, 2004.
[18] Q. Liu and R. C. Mintram, "Preliminary data analysis methods in
software estimation," Software Quality Journal, vol. 13, pp. 91-115,
2005.
[19] W. Harrison, "A flexible method for maintaining software metrics data: a
universal metrics repository," Journal of Systems and Software, vol. 72,
pp. 225-234, 2004.
[20] C. J. Lokan, "An empirical analysis of function point adjustment factors,"
Information and Software Technology, vol. 42, pp. 649-660, 2000.
[21] R. Jeffery, M. Ruhe, and I. Wieczorek, "A comparative study of two
software development cost modeling techniques using
multi-organizational and company-specific data," Information and
Software Technology, vol. 42, pp. 1009-1016, 2000.
[22] J. J. Cuadrado-Gallego, M. Sicilia, M. Garre, and D. Rodríguez, "An
empirical study of process-related attributes in segmented software
cost-estimation relationships," Journal of Systems and Software, vol. 79,
pp. 353-361, 2006.
[23] J. Moses, M. Farrow, N. Parrington, and P. Smith, "A productivity
benchmarking case study using Bayesian credible intervals," Software
Quality Journal, vol. 14, pp. 37-52, 2006.
[24] G. H. Subramanian and G. E. Zarnich, "An examination of some software
development effort and productivity determinants in ICASE tool
projects," Journal of Management Information Systems, vol. 12, pp.
143-160, 1996.
[25] C. A. Behrens, "Measuring the productivity of computer systems
development activities with function points," IEEE Transactions on
Software Engineering, vol. SE-9, pp. 648-652, 1983.
[26] A. MacCormack, C. F. Kemerer, M. Cusumano, and B. Crandall,
"Trade-offs between productivity and quality in selecting software
development practices," IEEE Software, vol. 20, pp. 78-85, 2003.
[27] M. H. Halstead, Elements of Software Science. New York: Elsevier, 1977.
[28] C. F. Kemerer, "Reliability of function points measurement: a field
experiment," Communications of the ACM, vol. 36, pp. 85-97, 1993.
[29] C. R. Symons, "Function point analysis: difficulties and improvements,"
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 14, pp. 2-11, 1988.
[30] C. F. Kemerer and B. S. Porter, "Improving the reliability of function
point measurement: an empirical study," IEEE Transactions on Software
Engineering, vol. 18, pp. 1011-1024, 1992.
[31] F. Louis, "Team size and productivity in systems development,"
Information Systems Management, vol. 8, pp. 27-35, 1991.
[32] S. D. Conte, H. E. Dunsmore, and Y. E. Shen, Software Engineering
Metrics and Models. Redwood City, CA: Benjamin-Cummings
Publishing, 1986.
[33] E. Mendes and B. Kitchenham, "Web Productivity Measurement and
Benchmarking," in Web Engineering, E. Mendes and N. Mosley, Eds.
Berlin: Springer, 2006, pp. 75-106.
[34] R. Klepper and D. Bock, "Third and fourth generation language
productivity differences," Communications of the ACM, vol. 38, pp.
69-79, 1995.
[35] B. P. Lientz, E. B. Swanson, and G. E. Tompkins, "Characteristics of
application software maintenance," Communications of the ACM, vol. 21,
pp. 466-471, 1978.
[36] G. H. Subramanian, P. C. Pendharkar, and M. Wallace, "An empirical
study of the effect of complexity, platform, and program type on software
development effort of business applications," Empirical Software
Engineering, vol. 11, pp. 541-553, 2006.
[37] J. Martin, Rapid Application Development. New York: Macmillan, 1991.
[38] B. W. Boehm, T. E. Gray, and T. Seewaldt, "Prototyping vs. specifying: A
multi-project experiment," presented at 7th International Conference on
Software Engineering, Orlando, 1984.
[39] R. T. Coupe and N. M. Onodu, "An empirical evaluation of the impact of
CASE on developer productivity and software quality," Journal of
Information Technology, vol. 11, pp. 173-181, 1996.
[40] D. Flynn, J. Vagner, and O. D. Vecchio, "Is CASE technology improving
quality and productivity in software development?," Logistics
Information Management, vol. 8, pp. 8-23, 1995.
[41] T. Bruckhaus, N. H. Madhavii, I. Janssen, and J. Henshaw, "The impact
of tools on software productivity," IEEE Software, vol. 13, pp. 29-38,
1996.
[42] B. A. Kitchenham, "Empirical studies of assumptions that underlie
software cost-estimation models," Information and Software Technology,
vol. 34, pp. 211-218, 1992.
[43] K. Maxwell, Applied Statistics for Software Managers. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall, 2002.
[44] NESMA, NESMA FPA Counting Practices Manual 2.0: Nesma
Association, 1996.
[45] S. A. Green, "How many subjects does it take to do a multiple regression
analysis?," Multivariate Behavioral Research, vol. 26, pp. 499-510,
1991.
[46] SAS Institute Inc, SAS/Stat User's Guide: Version 6 4th edition ed. Cary,
NC: SAS Institute Inc, 1990.
[47] M. J. Crawley, An Introduction to Data Analysis using S-Plus. Chichester:
John Wiley & Sons, 2002.
[48] W. N. Venables and B. D. Ripley, Modern applied statistics with S. New
York: Springer, 2002.
[49] A. C. Rencher, Linear Models in Statistics. New York: John Wiley &
Sons, 2000.
[50] W. J. Krzanowski, An Introduction to Statistical Modelling. London:
Arnold, 1998.
[51] R. Peck, C. Olsen, and J. Devore, Introduction to Statistics and Data
Analysis. London: Duxbury, 2001.
[1] R. S. Pressman, Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach. London:
Mcgraw-Hill, 2001.
[2] S. T. Albin, The Art of Software Architecture: Design Methods and
Techniques. New York: Wiley, 2003.
[3] B. Kitchenham and E. Mendes, "Software productivity measurement
using multiple size measures," IEEE Transactions on Software
Engineering, vol. 30, pp. 1023-1035, 2004.
[4] W. S. Humphrey and N. D. Singpurwalla, "Predicting (individual)
software productivity," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol.
17, pp. 196-207, 1991.
[5] K. D. Maxwell and P. Forselius, "Benchmarking software development
productivity," IEEE Software, vol. 17, pp. 80-88, 2000.
[6] S. Morasca and G. Russo, "An empirical study of software productivity,"
presented at Proceedings of the 25th International Computer Software
and Applications Conference on Invigorating Software Development,
Chicago, 2001.
[7] M. Arnold and P. Pedross, "Software size measurement and productivity
rating in a large-scalesoftware development department," presented at
20th International Conference on Software Engineering, Kyoto, Japan,
1998.
[8] N. R. Howes, "Managing software development projects for maximum
productivity," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. SE10, pp.
27-35, 1984.
[9] J. D. Blackburn, G. D. Scudder, and L. N. V. Wassenhove, "Improving
speed and productivity of software development: a global survey of
software developers," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol.
22, pp. 875-885, 1996.
[10] R. E. Loesh, "Improving productivity through standard design
templates," Data Processing, vol. 27, pp. 57-59, 1985.
[11] G. R. Finnie, G. E. Wittig, and D. Petkov, "Prioritizing software
development productivity factors using the analytic hierarchy process,"
Journal of Systems and Software, vol. 22, pp. 129-139, 1993.
[12] K. Maxwell, L. V. Wassenhove, and S. Dutta, "Software development
productivity of European space, military and industrial applications,"
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 22, pp. 706-718, 1996.
[13] D. N. Card, F. E. McGarry, and G. T. Page, "Evaluating software
engineering technologies," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering,
vol. SE-13, pp. 845-851, 1987.
[14] B. W. Boehm and P. N. Papaccio, "Understanding and Controlling
Software Costs," IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 14,
pp. 1462-1477, 1988.
[15] I. R. Chiang and V. S. Mookerjee, "Improving software team
productivity," Communications of the ACM, vol. 47, pp. 89-93, 2004.
[16] D. Anselmo and H. Ledgard, "Measuring productivity in the software
industry," Communications of the ACM, vol. 46, pp. 121-125, 2003.
[17] R. Groth, "Is the software industry's productivity declining?," IEEE
Software, vol. 21, pp. 92-94, 2004.
[18] Q. Liu and R. C. Mintram, "Preliminary data analysis methods in
software estimation," Software Quality Journal, vol. 13, pp. 91-115,
2005.
[19] W. Harrison, "A flexible method for maintaining software metrics data: a
universal metrics repository," Journal of Systems and Software, vol. 72,
pp. 225-234, 2004.
[20] C. J. Lokan, "An empirical analysis of function point adjustment factors,"
Information and Software Technology, vol. 42, pp. 649-660, 2000.
[21] R. Jeffery, M. Ruhe, and I. Wieczorek, "A comparative study of two
software development cost modeling techniques using
multi-organizational and company-specific data," Information and
Software Technology, vol. 42, pp. 1009-1016, 2000.
[22] J. J. Cuadrado-Gallego, M. Sicilia, M. Garre, and D. Rodríguez, "An
empirical study of process-related attributes in segmented software
cost-estimation relationships," Journal of Systems and Software, vol. 79,
pp. 353-361, 2006.
[23] J. Moses, M. Farrow, N. Parrington, and P. Smith, "A productivity
benchmarking case study using Bayesian credible intervals," Software
Quality Journal, vol. 14, pp. 37-52, 2006.
[24] G. H. Subramanian and G. E. Zarnich, "An examination of some software
development effort and productivity determinants in ICASE tool
projects," Journal of Management Information Systems, vol. 12, pp.
143-160, 1996.
[25] C. A. Behrens, "Measuring the productivity of computer systems
development activities with function points," IEEE Transactions on
Software Engineering, vol. SE-9, pp. 648-652, 1983.
[26] A. MacCormack, C. F. Kemerer, M. Cusumano, and B. Crandall,
"Trade-offs between productivity and quality in selecting software
development practices," IEEE Software, vol. 20, pp. 78-85, 2003.
[27] M. H. Halstead, Elements of Software Science. New York: Elsevier, 1977.
[28] C. F. Kemerer, "Reliability of function points measurement: a field
experiment," Communications of the ACM, vol. 36, pp. 85-97, 1993.
[29] C. R. Symons, "Function point analysis: difficulties and improvements,"
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, vol. 14, pp. 2-11, 1988.
[30] C. F. Kemerer and B. S. Porter, "Improving the reliability of function
point measurement: an empirical study," IEEE Transactions on Software
Engineering, vol. 18, pp. 1011-1024, 1992.
[31] F. Louis, "Team size and productivity in systems development,"
Information Systems Management, vol. 8, pp. 27-35, 1991.
[32] S. D. Conte, H. E. Dunsmore, and Y. E. Shen, Software Engineering
Metrics and Models. Redwood City, CA: Benjamin-Cummings
Publishing, 1986.
[33] E. Mendes and B. Kitchenham, "Web Productivity Measurement and
Benchmarking," in Web Engineering, E. Mendes and N. Mosley, Eds.
Berlin: Springer, 2006, pp. 75-106.
[34] R. Klepper and D. Bock, "Third and fourth generation language
productivity differences," Communications of the ACM, vol. 38, pp.
69-79, 1995.
[35] B. P. Lientz, E. B. Swanson, and G. E. Tompkins, "Characteristics of
application software maintenance," Communications of the ACM, vol. 21,
pp. 466-471, 1978.
[36] G. H. Subramanian, P. C. Pendharkar, and M. Wallace, "An empirical
study of the effect of complexity, platform, and program type on software
development effort of business applications," Empirical Software
Engineering, vol. 11, pp. 541-553, 2006.
[37] J. Martin, Rapid Application Development. New York: Macmillan, 1991.
[38] B. W. Boehm, T. E. Gray, and T. Seewaldt, "Prototyping vs. specifying: A
multi-project experiment," presented at 7th International Conference on
Software Engineering, Orlando, 1984.
[39] R. T. Coupe and N. M. Onodu, "An empirical evaluation of the impact of
CASE on developer productivity and software quality," Journal of
Information Technology, vol. 11, pp. 173-181, 1996.
[40] D. Flynn, J. Vagner, and O. D. Vecchio, "Is CASE technology improving
quality and productivity in software development?," Logistics
Information Management, vol. 8, pp. 8-23, 1995.
[41] T. Bruckhaus, N. H. Madhavii, I. Janssen, and J. Henshaw, "The impact
of tools on software productivity," IEEE Software, vol. 13, pp. 29-38,
1996.
[42] B. A. Kitchenham, "Empirical studies of assumptions that underlie
software cost-estimation models," Information and Software Technology,
vol. 34, pp. 211-218, 1992.
[43] K. Maxwell, Applied Statistics for Software Managers. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall, 2002.
[44] NESMA, NESMA FPA Counting Practices Manual 2.0: Nesma
Association, 1996.
[45] S. A. Green, "How many subjects does it take to do a multiple regression
analysis?," Multivariate Behavioral Research, vol. 26, pp. 499-510,
1991.
[46] SAS Institute Inc, SAS/Stat User's Guide: Version 6 4th edition ed. Cary,
NC: SAS Institute Inc, 1990.
[47] M. J. Crawley, An Introduction to Data Analysis using S-Plus. Chichester:
John Wiley & Sons, 2002.
[48] W. N. Venables and B. D. Ripley, Modern applied statistics with S. New
York: Springer, 2002.
[49] A. C. Rencher, Linear Models in Statistics. New York: John Wiley &
Sons, 2000.
[50] W. J. Krzanowski, An Introduction to Statistical Modelling. London:
Arnold, 1998.
[51] R. Peck, C. Olsen, and J. Devore, Introduction to Statistics and Data
Analysis. London: Duxbury, 2001.
@article{"International Journal of Information, Control and Computer Sciences:61451", author = "Zhizhong Jiang and Peter Naudé and Craig Comstock", title = "An Investigation on the Variation of Software Development Productivity ", abstract = "The productivity of software development is one of the major concerns for project managers. Given the increasing complexity of the software being developed and the concomitant rise in the typical project size, the productivity has not consistently improved. By analyzing the latest release of ISBSG data repository with 4106 projects ever developed, we report on the factors found to significantly influence productivity, and present an original model for the estimation of productivity during project design. We further illustrate that software development productivity has experienced irregular variations between the years 1995 and 2005. Considering the factors significant to productivity, we found its variations are primarily caused by the variations of average team size for the development and the unbalanced use of the less productive development language 3GL.
", keywords = "Development Platform, Function Point, Language,
Productivity, Software Engineering, Team Size.", volume = "1", number = "4", pages = "1123-10", }
