Dr. Dobbs Journal was quick to publish a mention of our latest enhancements:
To illustrate, one area of software development in which collecting metrics is invaluable has to do with project estimation. It is generally accept that poor estimation is responsible for the majority of software development project failures, and most estimates are based on subjective, inaccurate data, guesswork, and gut-feel intuition. This is one of the areas that the new release of 6th Sense Analytics addresses by providing a new set of capabilities for high-precision project estimation.
Computerworld's Mark Hall discusses the new release of 6th Sense Analytics in a recent article on SaaS (Software as a Service).
Dr. Dobbs recently interviewed Todd Olson, CTO of 6th Sense Analytics, regarding his thoughts on software development metrics.
"The consolidation of the software-development lifecycle toolset has motivated vendors to expose a rich and comprehensive set of APIs for the purpose of integrating their own tools. This created a powerful opportunity for us to tap into these tools to capture meaningful, API-level events about the execution of the software development process. We don't measure coarse-level units such as keystrokes -- in fact, we don't think that sort of data is meaningful. We look at the discrete events and activities that are taking place -- designing, editing, debugging, testing, commits, etc."
Victor Cruz has profiled 6th Sense Analytics and our customer Core Objects in his recent article
Measure Twice, Cut Once: Offshore Outsourcing Risk & Opportunity published by American Venture Magazine.
An excerpt from the article:
Never has it been so cheap to launch a startup. The cost of operating a company has been steadily pushed down thanks to hosted software or SaaS applications, Web 2.0 tools, fat, ubiquitous bandwidth, enterprise acceptance of open source software and the commoditization of much hardware and networking gear.
"Innovation has forced technology to nose dive in price," said Jeffrey Finkle of Odeon Capital Partners, New York. "What used to cost a million dollars to get a Web idea operational now costs $50K."
Web 2.0 and so-called social networking, as a web phenomenon and category, is hot in part because it costs so little to launch a web-based business.
With capital needs not as crucial, the pressure shifts to getting new ideas out the door and into the market as fast as possible. To speed time-to-market, many VCs are telling their portfolio companies to step aside and let the engineering be done by strangers in foreign lands. Firms such as Enterprise Partners, Mayfield, Redpoint Ventures, Sierra Ventures and Venrock Associates are investing in third-party outsourcing arrangements with offshore software development houses on behalf of their portfolio companies.
But while sending high-end functions offshore can yield speed-to-market, cost and skill advantages, it does so at a price: loss of visibility and managerial control...
SD Times published Greg Burnell's recent letter to the editor. Greg, CEO of 6th Sense Analytics, asks "No more left turns? According to United Parcel Service (UPS), turning left wastes time, fuel and introduces risk. So “Brown” has more or less banned the practice of turning left as a business process optimization measure. Why do organizations go to these lengths to wring pennies and seconds from their processes?"
You can find the answer in his letter at SD Times.
CMP Technology today announced that 6th Sense Analytics was a 2007 winner of the Jolt Productivity Award for the Project Management category.
6th Sense was a finalist for the Jolt Product Excellence Award, which went to Rally Software, who participated in our recent webcast, "Making Software Development Metrics Work." This is the second win for Rally in as many years. We're big Rally fans, so we're celebrating for them as well. For vendors in the software development market, the Jolts are like the Oscars. It's an exceptional honor to be associated with this award.
The Outsourcing Debate: Are Our Fears Misplaced?
6th Sense CEO and Chairman Greg Burnell has been published on Enterprise Networks & Servers regarding the outsourcing debate.
Greg writes "Should outsourcing be feared? You be the judge. But in the final analysis, I believe you'll conclude that outsourcing is proving to be a productive contributor to today's changing business models. While it shouldn't inspire fear, outsourcing does introduce some new business risks organizations must be prepared to deal with."
Chris Kanaracus has written a brief article about 6th Sense Analytics for Redmond Developer News. Chris quotes senior Forrester analyst Carey Schwaber saying "Lots of people are doing dashboards, but nobody else is doing the automatic collection of data. Most tools that use dashboards really require a lot of legwork on the back-end."
Vance McCarthy of Integrated Developers News recently interviewed Todd Olson, co-founder and CTO of 6th Sense Analytics regarding the value of metrics in software development.
Read the full article here:
http://www.idevnews.com/CaseStudies.asp?ID=216
6th Sense Analytics CEO Greg Burnell contributed the following tip on making outsourcing relationships work to BusinessWeek.com's Small Business Tips of the Day column:
"Companies without an outsourcing strategy are missing out on the cost and skill advantages of an increasingly flat world. But sending key projects and business processes offshore introduces new risk by undermining visibility and control. The reality is that you can't manage what you can't measure, which means that a metrics program is critical to making outsource relationships work.
Beware of outsourcers who would prefer to keep you at arm's length, and insist on a collaborative partnership based on transparency, trust, and openness."
