Applications of DEA to software engineering management

grantor: University of TorontoSoftware systems play an increasingly important role in organizational effectiveness, as well as in gaining competitive advantage and in differentiating organizations from their competition. This applies to both producers of software and those organizations that utilize software. Thus, our ability to efficiently produce high quality software is a crucial factor in determining the success of many organizations. Unfortunately, the track record of most software producers remains poor, with only a handful of notable exceptions worldwide. In addition to new and improved methods and technology, many experts have cited the need to overcome the difficulties associated with managing the software engineering process as solutions to this so-called 'software crisis'. This thesis addresses several limitations of DEA techniques that can arise through their application to software engineering management. New theoretical contributions are made in three main areas. The first area is crucial to the performance measurement process. New and enhanced models of software production are presented which divide the software production process into multiple phases and are capable of evaluating data sets containing projects with varying degrees of new and modified code. Measuring overall efficiency and effectiveness is fundamental to the management control process. This is the motivation for the second area: researching the relationship between traditional economic production measures (and definitions) and DEA multiplier flexibility. A prescriptive framework for the application of DEA models to measure overall efficiency and effectiveness is presented along with several new DEA modeLs important to this framework. The third area is related to the application of DEA to software project planning and presents new tools for forecasting and trade-off analysis. Existing DEA techniques are adapted for the purpose of conducting general trade-off analysis. Inherent in this analysis process is the generation of efficient project forecasts. This document, while inspired by software engineering management, contains new theoretical contributions which are not limited in their application to this domain only. In particular, this applies to the framework: to measure overall efficiency and the new measures that it contains. The new methods of forecasting and trade-off analysis are also applicable to domains where such project management tools are appropriate.Ph.D