Nowadays, many companies invest a significant amount of resources in software development activities. But what if I told you that these investments can be optimized by knowing each organization’s reference productivity to compare it with market standards? Well, that’s called benchmarking. Below, we explain the 7 steps to conduct a perfect benchmarking of software development projects.
1. Establish an Objective
Without knowing what you want to achieve with the benchmarking results, it will be difficult to utilize its full potential. It’s crucial to establish your goals from the outset.
2. Select Your Projects
Choose the most representative projects to achieve the established objective. Avoid exceptions, as standard projects are preferable.
3. Choose the Unit of Measurement
Avoid selecting a unit of measurement dependent on the team, environment, or technology. The quantity of software product is the best measure for calibrating developments.
4. Measure Your Projects
For the selected project sample, measure using the chosen unit of measurement. Ensure consistent measurement criteria are applied to all projects.
5. Select the Activities
In benchmarking, compare the same set of development activities for each project. Choose activities that best represent your projects and help achieve the established objective.
6. Analyse Your Data
Review the obtained results statistically to identify correlations from which improvement points can be learned. Pay attention to trends and evolutions over time.
7. Compare with the Market
Select a Database with data from the software development market and compare your results with theirs. Comparing with the market will help you understand the potential improvement margin of your developments.
At LedaMC, we know what we’re talking about because we have the largest development project Database in the world. It contains over 65,000 project references from various providers, technologies, methodologies, and more than 15 countries worldwide.
Since 2008, we’ve been analysing projects, so our clients can get the best out of them at the lowest cost.