What is conventional software management?

Answer 1

Barry Boehm's one-page "Industrial Software Metrics Top 10 List" [Boehm, 1987]
is a good, objective characterization of the state of software development.
In the following paragraphs, quotations from Boehm's top 10 list are presented in
italics, followed by my comments.
1) Finding and fixing a software problem after delivery costs 100 times more
than finding and fixing the problem in early design phases.
2) You can compress software development schedules 25% of nominal, but no
more.
3) For every $1 you spend on development, you will spend $2 on maintenance.
4) Software development and maintenance costs are primarily a function of ihinumber
of source lines of code.
5) Variations among people account for the biggest differences in software
productivity.
6) The overall ratio of software to hardware costs is still growing. In 1955 it was
15:85; in 1985, 85:15.
7) Only about 15% of software development effort is devoted to programming.
8) Software systems and products typically cost 3 times as much per SLOC as
individual software programs. Software-system products (i.e., system of systems)
cost 9 times as much.
9) Walkthroughs catch 60% o f the errors.
10) 80% of the contribution comes from 20% of the contributors