About SBO

Software economics is an increasingly important topic concerned with improving the value created by investments in the development and use of software. The understanding of the relationships between economics and software development practices is the basis for improving software capability. Software managers have often ignored software economics in the past, because they did not have access to reliable benchmarking data. As a result, many (process) improvement initiatives resulted in satisfying standards/models instead of tangibly improving measured capability. Now that data on thousands of projects is available to the software industry, it is becoming possible to make solid business decisions about software development practices and their results in terms of productivity and quality. Benchmarking is a technique that makes use of external comparisons to better evaluate current performance and identify possible actions for the future. As such, it is an important instrument to drive improvement efforts.

Based on research and case studies, the Software Benchmarking Organization (SBO for short) has developed a benchmarking reference set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that represent current best practice in the software industry. In this set, the following categories are distinguished:

Project performance
- How predictable is the performance of projects?
Process efficiency
- How efficient is the development process?
Product scope
- How large and stable is the scope of the planned effort?
Product quality
- What is the quality of the resulting outcome/product?

This set can be used to assess an organization’s software capability and allows at the same for benchmarking against industry values (average, best-in-class).

The Software Benchmarking Organization was founded in 2009 and has the objective to provide benchmarking services to the software industry. The portfolio includes benchmarking studies, workshops, and supporting products. The portfolio is brought to the market through an international network with accredited partners. The current management team consists of Dr. Hans Sassenburg and Dr. Lucian Voinea.

Reference: Dr. Ir. Ton Tinus, Senior Development Director (Philips Healthcare, BU CV):

“The benchmarking study executed in April 2009 was very useful and has brought many new insights. In addition, benchmarking the results with industry values was a useful exercise. The introduced best practice KPI set is considered very powerful and we have adopted the entire set to monitor projects and improvements."

A more detailed presentation about the Software Benchmarking Organization can be found here.

News

May 27th, 2011
KPI workshop at SolidSource
May 20th, 2011
SBO enters the Dutch market
April 29th, 2010
SBO offers FREE first-order benchmarking reports online
October 5th, 2009
SBO organizes three new workshops
September 18th, 2009
SBO conducting benchmark studies

Events

September 5th, 2011
Workshop at SolidSource
January 12th, 2010
Workshop at Sioux
November 26th, 2009
Workshop at Synspace

Testimonials

“The benchmarking study executed in April 2009 was very useful and has brought many new insights. In addition, benchmarking the results with industry values was a useful exercise. The introduced best practice KPI set is considered very powerful and we have adopted the entire set to monitor projects and improvements." Philips
-- Dr. Ir. Ton Tinus, Senior Development Director at Philips Healthcare, BU CV

FEI "Within limited budget and time Secure-AG has audited a major FEI software project and revealed some interesting metrics for us. The audit has given us a nice baseline for comparing ourselves with industry peers and with ourselves in the future in time. We were specifically impressed with the graphs and information that the SolidSource tooling provided"
-- Dirk Jan Swagerman, Director R&D Acht Software Engineering at FEI Company

FEI (Nasdaq: FEIC) is the world leader in pioneering technologies and applications that deliver imaging solutions for 3D characterization, analysis and modification/prototyping with resolutions down to the sub-Ångström level. With a 60-year legacy of technological innovation and leadership, FEI has set the performance standard across TEM, SEM and DualBeam categories with its Titan™, Magellan™ and Helios™ product families. FEI’s customers, working in advanced research and manufacturing, are supported by field-experienced applications specialists. They have open access to FEI’s prestigious global user network so they can succeed in accelerating nanoscale discovery. FEI’s NanoPorts in North America, Europe and Asia provide centers of technical excellence where its world-class community of customers and specialists collaborate. FEI has sales and service operations in more than 50 countries around the world. More information can be found at: www.fei.com.

Continental "Since 2009, we have adopted the best practice KPI set as part of our continuous improvement program. At this stage, most KPIs have been implemented. Using the set for project monitoring has helped us to improve the required transparency in our software projects and supports us to make informed decisions in a pro-active way. "
-- Dirk Gandras, Director Subsegment Tachograph Products at Continental

Verum "The best practice KPI set turns out to be an excellent instrument to measure real software capability. It enables our customers to baseline and benchmark their current performance and allows us to derive a solid business case for adopting our ASD technology. The supporting workshops have been very well received by both our consultants and our customers."
-- Robert Howe, CEO Verum