Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!emory!stiatl!srchtec.searchtech.com!johnb
From: johnb@srchtec.uucp (John Baldwin)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: design to cost
Message-ID: <1991Feb14.142129.26230@srchtec.uucp>
Date: 14 Feb 91 14:21:29 GMT
References: <15038@uswat.UUCP> <1991Feb06.102233.19301@eecs.wsu.edu> <1991Feb11.203134.24438@jato.jpl.nasa.gov>
Organization: search technology, inc.
Lines: 23

In article <1991Feb11.203134.24438@jato.jpl.nasa.gov>
   heron@mars.UUCP (Vance Heron) writes:

+ >    Forgive my ignorance, but how in the world can your funding board
+ >allocate a sum of money for a particular software development effort
+ >before any requirements are known or estimation done? 

+ By figuring what the finished product will be worth to the organization -
+ if it will cost $1M to develop software that will make/save the company
+ $100/year, the $1M wont be allocated (most of the time)


It sounds like his organization needs a tighter "feedback loop" in
the implementation stage, or maybe even earlier.  As Mr. Heron mentioned,
it's unwise to invest money you can never recoup --- so it really doesn't
make sense to me why they even let a group go ahead and start developing
something without knowing whether or not they can achieve their objective
within the specified cost constraints.

-- 
John Baldwin              | johnb@searchtech.com
Search Technology, Inc.   | srchtec!johnb@gatech.edu
Atlanta, Georgia          | johnb%srchtec.uucp@mathcs.emory.edu