Steps in a Cost Benefit Analysis (03/20/2008)
... Combine the weighted consequences for the given alternative into a single summary number—technically known as the “present value.” 5. Compare the summary number for the various alternatives being considered, and choose the alternative that has the highest present value. .....

When to Use Cost Benefit Analysis (03/20/2008)
... The information used in cost-benefit analysis is always imprecise, sometimes ridiculously crude. And the more important the decision, the less reliable is the information that is likely to be available, because very important decisions arise infrequently. The machinery provided later for dealing with uncertainty helps us deal with lack of information. Yet imprecision necessarily remains. Our desires and goals also are imprecise and often muddled....

Development Manager Role (03/08/2008)
... She understands that software developers are human and that, as De Luca's First Law says, the job of managing them is 80% psychology and only 20% technology. The development manager must also look to increase productivity and create a learning organization focused on continuous improvement. The Development Manager will work with the team to identify constraints, then negotiate protection of the constraints with the program (or release) and product managers. The Development Manager is responsible for ensuring full exploitation of a constraint and implementing schemes to subordinate other resources and processes to the full exploitation of the constraint. The Development Manager will also propose schemes to the executive management for elevation of a constraint and prepare a business case showing the improved ROI....

Project Manager Role (03/08/2008)
... Significant events are those that impact the Critical Path or delivery date of the project. Buffers are consumed because inventory is blocked and an issue is raised. Hence, the Project Manager must focus primarily on keeping the Issue Log empty and preventing issues from impacting the buffers and eventually the Critical Path. The metrics a Project Manager should monitor and be measured by are the number of open issues, their trend and age, the number of units of inventory blocked, their trend and age of the blockages, and the project and feeding buffer consumption and current status. All of these should be grouped into a single project dashboard....

Program Manager Role (03/06/2008)
... In the following discussion, program manager also means release manager. The primary role of the program manager is to control the release of the inventory into the system of software production. The program manager is at the end of the rope in the Drum-Buffer-Rope system. He must monitor the Throughput on the constraint and the queues that buffer system steps and feed the inventory into the system at a rate that can be consumed by the system whilst maintaining the protective buffers. The program manager must also coordinate the delivery of working code—the output from the system—with all other activities required to realize the Throughput, for example, manuals, training, marketing material, PR, deployment, and logistics....

Product Manager Role (03/04/2008)
... Hence it is reasonable to make the product manager responsible for I, NP, and ROI. The better the product manager, the more NP he will be able to achieve with less I, which produces greater ROI. The product manager must seek methods for improving idea generation and requirements capture. He must seek to reduce the average investment per function (AIPF). The marketing group should seek to become a learning organization....