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The ROI of systems engineering: Some quantitative results for software‐intensive systems

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  • Barry Boehm
  • Ricardo Valerdi
  • Eric Honour

Abstract

This paper presents quantitative results on the return on investment of systems engineering (SE‐ROI) from an analysis of the 161 software projects in the COCOMO II database. The analysis shows that, after normalizing for the effects of other cost drivers, the cost difference between projects doing a minimal job of software systems engineering— as measured by the thoroughness of its architecture definition and risk resolution— and projects doing a very thorough job was 18% for small projects and 92% for very large software projects as measured in lines of code. The paper also presents applications of these results to project experience in determining ‘‘how much up front systems engineering is enough’’ for baseline versions of smaller and larger software projects, for both ROI‐driven internal projects and schedule‐driven outsourced systems of systems projects. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Eng

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  • Barry Boehm & Ricardo Valerdi & Eric Honour, 2008. "The ROI of systems engineering: Some quantitative results for software‐intensive systems," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(3), pages 221-234, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:syseng:v:11:y:2008:i:3:p:221-234
    DOI: 10.1002/sys.20096
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    Cited by:

    1. Michael W. Grenn & Shahram Sarkani & Thomas Mazzuchi, 2014. "The Requirements Entropy Framework in Systems Engineering," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), pages 462-478, December.
    2. Jared Fortune & Ricardo Valerdi, 2013. "A framework for reusing systems engineering products," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(3), pages 304-312, September.
    3. Mohamad Kassab & Giuseppe Destefanis, 2017. "Requirements Effort Estimation: The State of the Practice," Collegium of Economic Analysis Annals, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of Economic Analysis, issue 43, pages 87-102.
    4. Clement Smartt & Susan Ferreira, 2012. "Constructing a general framework for systems engineering strategy," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(2), pages 140-152, June.
    5. Ricardo Valerdi & Matthew Dabkowski & Indrajeet Dixit, 2015. "Reliability Improvement of Major Defense Acquisition Program Cost Estimates—Mapping DoDAF to COSYSMO," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(5), pages 530-547, October.
    6. Clement Smartt & Susan Ferreira, 2011. "Advancing systems engineering in support of the bid and proposal process," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(3), pages 255-266, September.
    7. Charlotte N. Dunford & Mike Yearworth & Darren M. York & Patrick Godfrey, 2013. "A view of Systems Practice: Enabling quality in design," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(2), pages 134-151, June.
    8. Mauricio Peña & Ricardo Valerdi, 2015. "Characterizing the Impact of Requirements Volatility on Systems Engineering Effort," Systems Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(1), pages 59-70, January.

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