A Framework for Evaluating Software Technology

  • Authors:
  • Alan W. Brown;Kurt C. Wallnau

  • Affiliations:
  • -;-

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Software
  • Year:
  • 1996

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Abstract

Software development organizations continually make decisions on how to select, apply, and introduce software technology. Companies decide on some technologies explicitly after examining alternatives in detail; other technologies are selected with little study of the decision's potential impact. In both cases, the organization attempts to understand and balance competing concerns regarding the new technology. These concerns include acquisition costs, the technology's effect on quality and time to market, and the training and support services it will require. Attempts to calculate the return on investment of software technology have generally failed. The foremost reason is the difficulty in establishing cause and effect when assessing new software technologies' impact on an organization. The authors' experimental framework can help companies evaluate a new software technology by examining its features in relation to its peers and competitors through a systematic approach that includes modeling and experiments.