Making the Software Business Case: Improvement by the Numbers (SEI Series in Software Engineering (Paperback))

This book teaches the key skill software professionals need to gain support for their ideas and projects from the decision-makers who hold the purse strings: how to make the business case. Leading software management consultant Don Reifer presents a start-to-finish, software-specific framework any developer, project manager, and entrepreneur can use to clearly present both the costs and compelling benefits of their software projects. Using case studies and practical examples, Making the Software Business Case offers sound guidance on creating software business cases. Reifer focuses on the projects that are most difficult to get funding for: those devised to justify improvements to the way software is managed and delivered. He shows how to identify and quantify potential cost reduction, cost avoidance, improvements in time to market, and productivity enhancements. Along the way, developers learn how to justify capital investments, moving to product line architectures, migrating to e-Business technologies, or even purchasing other firms. For all developers, project managers, entrepreneurs, researchers, and others who must justify their costs or convince others to fund their projects.