The lost components in commercial software - A business case study for the need for RM&A

Two main reasons have appeared as to why commercial company´s who perform software development and maintenance do not include RM & A. Those main reasons are the lack of knowledge regarding RM & A and a belief that it will cost them more both in money and time. The example presented evidence of how RM & A can improve software development and maintenance. Not only were the requirements met, but well exceeded. One customer stated the impossible had been done. Another stated they tested the software themselves after delivery because they could not believe it and confirmed the figures.The results are satisfied customers, requirements that have been exceeded, higher reliability, improved maintenance capability and a product that is available when needed, at a higher rate. Overall, this enables an increase in profits. For example, the warranty can be extended, thus providing a sales opportunity for customers and the resulting products quality will become known and help sell the product. The staff will be happier as they understand the impact of what they do and have learned how to build in and provide quality.The improvements with the staff and the software surprised both the customers and Executives. The staff was so thrilled with what they had accomplished. They too believed it was an impossible task. Throughout the process, the Executive staff continued to believe it was impossible until the testing results started to demonstrate the success. The staffs for the first time were receiving compliments for their hard work. Not one of the original staff members was replaced. All rose to the expectations, put tremendous effort into the success of the product and definitely earned the pride and complements given to them. The final delivery resulted in 98.6% quality. Only 1.4% error rate. The delivery consisted of over 1500 fixes of which about 37% were rated 1 and about 5% were rated 3; the rest being level 2 fixes. Most of the fixes involved at least 2 differe- nt components and integrated with at least 5 othermodules.modules. During final testing a customer upgraded their platform. As a result, it required a number of changes in the software for it to function on this new version being released. However, since the software was in final testing, the fixes were developed and put on the internet server so it wasimmediately available to the customer. The balance of the fixes consisted of 7spelling errors and a number of other minor errors. Of the spelling errors only 1 was visible to the customer. Not one error impacted functionality. Prior to the delivery a document was created and sent to each customer. This document provided all the items fixed and all the information needed regarding the new functionality. This information not only included a description of the changes or enhancements, but instructions of how to use it. The customers were surprised. Previously they received upgrades and fixes with no explanations and had to guess what was done and not done. The result of incorporating RM & A is a fully functional, stable software that ran about 13% faster. The design was brought up to date with the actual software and the staff learned that even by incorporating all the changes and requirements they can deliver on time with high quality. A product they can be and were proud of making.