Borland Commissioned Independent Study Finds App Dev Organizations Missing the Mark on Metrics and Measurement

Cost and Complexity of Metrics Collection and Reliance on Superficial Metrics Among Top Reasons App Dev Remains “Weakest Link” in IT Metrics

Austin, Texas - Dec 10, 2007 : Application development organizations lag behind their business and IT peers when it comes to their use of metrics, according to a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Borland Software Corporation (NASDAQ: BORL, www.borland.com), the global leader in Open Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). Despite the pivotal role of IT in enabling business agility and supporting innovation and growth, subjective estimates and post-mortem metrics that do little to ensure project success are still the norm for managing the delivery of software.

Through 20 interviews with development managers and executives in charge of application development organizations at $1 billion plus companies, Forrester Consulting concluded that two factors – the cost and complexity of metrics collection, and the reliance on superficial metrics – conspire to deter application development organizations from attempting to improve their metrics programs.

“We are entering the age of the ‘Agile Business,’ where companies will win or lose based on their ability to rapidly gather the right data, analyze it and make informed decisions and course changes,” said Marc Brown, vice president of product marketing at Borland. “What this study underscores is that app dev is the weakest link in the chain. Software delivery continues to be a ‘black box,’ which means IT is lacking the information it needs to improve its performance, understand its delivery capacity and respond to changing business demands.”

When companies attempt measurement initiatives, they often select the wrong metrics and use inefficient methods for collection. The Forrester study uncovered that the most commonly tracked measures are traditional “post-mortem” project management metrics – schedule, cost and defects – that don’t really describe the work being performed on a development project and, ultimately, offer little value in ensuring the success of these key initiatives.

“The lack of in-flight project metrics that really describe the work being performed on a project is a major fault of most application development metrics programs, and it’s one that most shops aren’t even aware of,” the study continues. “Without metrics about business value, application development organizations are unable to communicate with their customers about their contributions to the bottom line or even prioritize the work in a way that makes real business sense.”

Forrester’s study uncovered that the number one obstacle to gathering meaningful metrics is the manual effort involved. Nearly half of the companies Forrester interviewed cited this as a challenge, and several of the companies reported that they spend nearly a third of their time on metrics collection. To further complicate the situation, development organizations struggle with the technical complexities involved in the trending and aggregation of metrics – where the bulk of the value of measurement is found. Eight of the 20 participants were unable to trend or aggregate the metrics they collect.

Borland to Deliver Business Intelligence for ALM

Borland’s Open ALM vision is to enable companies to automate processes through the integration of any combination of lifecycle tools, while providing a management layer that offers unified metrics and reporting. In delivering this management layer, Borland will help customers overcome the cost and complexity of collecting and aggregating relevant metrics and provide a foundation for app dev organizations to measure their performance, accurately assess project health and risk, rapidly pinpoint and address problems, and improve processes.

Over the next 18 months, Borland is planning to introduce new products, solutions and services that will bring business intelligence capabilities to the software delivery organization and will aim to:

Help customers determine which metrics deliver value to the business – the “metrics that matter” – and establish measurement best practices to begin gathering relevant data from in-flight projects.
Automate the transparent collection and aggregation of the relevant data, consolidating metrics that are generally scattered across the “silos” of the software delivery cycle to give customers an aggregated project view – in the form of operational and informational dashboards.
Optimize development processes by using these real-time, “in-flight” metrics to understand key performance indicators – risk, cost, impact and value.

“The ability to measure the performance of software delivery has become an absolute ‘must have’ – there is no way IT will be able to support the needs of the agile business without it,” said Brown. “Borland’s strategy is to help bring some intelligence into the ‘black box’ and provide a path for incremental changes that will move organizations down the path of transforming software delivery from chaotic art to managed business process.”

To download the full study, “Changing the Cost/Benefit Equation for Application Development Metrics,” visit http://tinyurl.com/2gev7f. Editor’s Note: for media interested in a copy of the full study, please contact Brian Garabedian at brian.garabedian@borland.com or 408.863.2930.

About Borland

Founded in 1983, Borland (NASDAQ: BORL) is the leading vendor of Open Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solutions – open to customers’ processes, tools and platforms — providing the flexibility to manage, measure and improve the software delivery process. To learn more about maximizing the business value of software, visit http://www.borland.com.

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