Metrics to Reduce Risk in Product Ship Decisions – Part VI – Case Study: DataFinder – Define Shipment Criteria

Metrics to Reduce Risk in Product Ship Decisions – Part VI – Case Study: DataFinder – Define Shipment Criteria (#6 in the series Metrics to Reduce Risk in Product Ship Decisions)
By Johanna Rothman

DataFinder developed these criteria for shipment:

1. At least 6 of the beta sites should be referenceable. That is, the customers should be sufficiently happy with the product that they will provide references for it.
2. The final code branch must be in place, containing the code, compilers, and tests.
3. Minimum 98% regression test pass rate.
4. No bugs that cause core dumps.
5. Minimum 90% function coverage in regression tests.
6. All regression test failures must be known, bugs defined, and plan for fix in place.
7. All performance tests must pass.
8. Performance must be at .

Reliability must be 100%: all successful commits must have committed, all rollbacks must rollback successfully, all data recovery mechanisms must be successful.

Note that there are some business issues here- getting referenceable beta sites is not a traditional product development activity. However, one of the overall product goals was to become the marketplace definition product. That would be impossible without having references.

The criterion regarding the code branch, with everything required to recreate the product is not strictly a technical product development issue, but is a management issue for product development. By fulfilling this criterion, the development team knows they can recreate the entire product at any time.

Original article can be found at: http://www.jrothman.com/Papers/QW96.html

Johanna Rothman consults, speaks, and writes on managing high-technology product development. Johanna is the author of Manage It!’Your Guide to Modern Pragmatic Project Management’. She is the coauthor of the pragmatic Behind Closed Doors, Secrets of Great Management, and author of the highly acclaimed Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People. And, Johanna is a host and session leader at the Amplifying Your Effectiveness (AYE) conference (http://www.ayeconference.com). You can see Johanna’s other writings at http://www.jrothman.com.