When CFOs Say There’s No Money For Digital Transformation Projects

Companies are under increasing pressure to embark on digital transformation projects; optimising operational efficiency is not just important for profitability but survival, keeping up with competitors as well as mushrooming start-ups with virtual infrastructures.

But digital initiatives face internal competition of their own: Your company has plans to update and migrate legacy applications, create and improve digital services for customers, connecting different departments’ bespoke systems, continue to maintain software releases at a higher cost than was ever expected, etc.

When Companies Lack Objective Development Metrics

Flat budgets give senior management an understandable reason to refuse starting further software development projects within the current fiscal year. While no software release is ever really finished, open-ended projects present a serious risk of mission creep; needing even more budget to deliver an MVP.

The answer, then, is to ascertain the budget and timeframe the project should require and ensure software development progresses at the rate needed to meet these targets.

If these two endeavours sound easier said than done, it’s no surprise: Traditionally it hasn’t been possible to undertake these steps with any reliably accurate idea of how long application development projects will or should take. Business leaders lack objective software development metrics or KPIs to effectively measure and determine the optimum budget and timeframe.

When Companies Lack Objective Development Metrics

Companies can estimate project size in terms of functions points; summing the time taken to complete each task that the project comprises, based on software developers past experience. While the team may agree on a functional size for each task, consensus doesn’t determine truth!

Developers may estimate tasks will take longer than needed to reduce pressure on their work. A project may appear to be on schedule according to estimation, but during the build it remains unknown whether far more time is required than estimated. 

The problem of a complete lack of a reliable basis for estimation has led to the defeatist ‘#NoEstimates’ movement; fine for the hobbyist but not the CFO who needs to know what a project will cost. Both time and cost of projects must be based on an objective unit of ‘work’ that projects require.

This essential need was the impetus for BlueOptima. The technology calculates a measure of intellectual effort that is consistent across projects, teams and languages. This insight empowers software development managers to understand the amount of Actual Coding Effort being invested into current projects – and how much past projects have required.

So, What To Tell The CFO?

That the too-long age of indeterminable software spending is over: BlueOptima enlightens companies as to how long projects should take and should cost and empowers managers to guide efficient progress to hit these goals. Confident control over costs allows better estimation of the ROI that new releases will deliver – and how soon the company will be able to invest the returns in further digital initiatives.

BlueOptima is the leading provider of software development metrics that allow companies to objectively measure developers’ productivity and code quality. Our products are used by 9 of the world’s leading global banks and major telecoms companies.