Tag: business productivity

On April 6^th, CAST held a user group meeting on the topic of function point analysis and software productivity measurement. The meeting gathered more than 20 software measurement professionals from major companies in the banking, IT consulting, telecom, aviation and public sectors for a two-hour working session to discuss the benefits of function point analysis testing.

The event featured presentations including:

1. An IBM case study on how they worked with CAST to integrate and secure an Automated Function Point (AFP) approach with a big player in the aeronautic sector within TMA Systems
2. Functional sizing case study
3. Updates on the new CISQ standards for Automated Function Points
4. The importance of internal and external benchmarking

Benjamin Rehberg, Partner and Managing Director of the Boston Consulting Group and former consultant for IBM Global Business Services, discusses the importance of both IT risk management and application portfolio management (APM) in a video conversation with CAST. He looks at the challenges for IT leaders, the need for software measurement and discusses how IT transformation can improve business operations.

As IT organizations face increasing demands from business, their IT systems have become increasingly complex. Today’s applications are typically a heterogeneous web of systems and software from an array of vendors and custom development.

For Jay Ferro, CIO of the American Cancer Society, his employer’s mission hits far closer to home than those of most others in his position. The father of three boys, Ferro lost his 36-year-old wife, Priscilla, to cervical cancer in January 2007. In her memory, he founded Priscilla's Promise, a non-profit organization that brings greater awareness to cervical cancer.

During last week’s webinar on IT Transformation featuring Marc Cecere, vice president and principal analyst for Forrester Research, many questions presented by participants went unanswered due to time constraints. Because these questions are likely being asked by many in the IT arena, we asked Marc’s webinar co-host, Pete Pizzutillo of CAST to provide answers to the three most frequently asked questions.

In today’s software-driven business world, IT transformation has become an enormous component of business transformation and software risk management. This is one of the key messages delivered by Marc Cecere, Vice President and Principal Analyst for Forrester Research, during a webinar held recently on Business Transformation, which was sponsored by CAST, Inc.

Recently, as I sat on the Northeast corridor train, the ticket-taker informed us that we would be delayed 15 minutes. As I thought about the impact on my day, a flutter of activity rippled through the cabin. Passengers called bosses, colleagues, wives and customers spreading the news. What was interesting was that the relayed news was different: some people doubled the time, others bumped it up to solid hour and, shockingly, no one made it shorter.

I cannot believe how much our education system has changed. When I went to kindergarten, most of curriculum revolved around getting along with others (a lesson some will argue never took with me) and some basic verbal skills. I learned at my daughter's kindergarten orientation that blocks and finger painting have been replaced by geography, math, science and civics.

As you may know from my bio here, I’m a big fan of Boston sports. So you can understand how thrilled I was a few weeks ago when “my” Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup for the first time since I was my daughter’s age!

It wasn’t easy for them, though. Through the first round of the playoffs, they looked like they could be a “one-and-done” team and everybody – including some alleged diehard fans – were already calling for the dismissal of their head coach because of their anemic performance. Nevertheless, they made the necessary adjustments, got some stellar work out of key individuals, overcame a few adversities and in the end proved to be the best team in the National Hockey League this year.

From the earthquake and tsunami in Japan back in March to the tornadoes that have ripped through the Midwestern United States over the last two months, we have been witness to the violence and destruction Mother Nature can inflict without warning.

As we begin to move on from the shock of the destruction wrought by these natural disasters, we turn our attention to the recovery, both in human terms and in terms of business.

It’s Patch Tuesday again. The monthly rite of passage for Microsoft as it attempts to patch some of the holes in its software that it didn’t bother to fix before they put it in the box as well as those exposed after the software had been installed in millions of devices.

Last week on the East Coast Main Line, which connects London to Edinburgh, a software malfunction left five trains stranded mid-track and significantly delayed others after a power supply issue knocked out the signaling system. According to reports, software that should have instructed the backup signaling system to kick in failed to function, causing all signals on the line to default to “Red,” halting trains where they stood. The failure left more than 3,000 rail passengers stranded or delayed for more than five hours on a Saturday afternoon.

Discussions in the industry about technical debt have been focused on the IT costs involved in remediation and the potential risk to the company if applications deployed with poor structural integrity fail to perform optimally, or fail completely.

Because CAST's quality metrics are a unique and vital addition to IBM Insight.

Speaking of software productivity, Peter Cohan of AOL's Daily Finance recently wrote about how automated software quality measurement improves IT productivity and in turn, business productivity.

Read it here.