News

Software Production Management Benefits Cited in Survey

• By Kurt Mackie
• November 29, 2007

SPM offered other advantages for companies, according to the "Software Production Management" report, which surveyed an undisclosed number of management respondents.

SPM improved the efficiency of working with distributed teams. Respondents also reported the ability to repurpose resources as a result of SPM use. For instance, they could reduce their personnel while still increasing output. Software build times were reduced, and there was a faster time to market, according to the report.

SPM is a subset of application lifecycle management. It helps to accelerate and automate the build, test and deployment process of the software lifecycle, according to Theresa Lanowitz, founder of voke and a coauthor of the report.

SPM is typically used by independent software vendors, but there's lots of room for it at the enterprise too.

"ISVs, in general, do a pretty good job in automating the build, test and deploy process, but the enterprise has not been focused on that part of the lifecycle for a long time," Lanowitz said.

However, as applications have become more complex, SPM has become an important ideal, particularly for enterprise software development.

"Suddenly, the enterprise IT organization is being asked to build software products, much like an ISV," Lanowitz said. "So as the enterprise IT organization moves down this path of behaving more like a commercial software company, behaving more like an ISV, it becomes very apparent that they need to focus on this concept of software production management."

She added that SPM users are talking about reducing overall build times by 10, 20 and 30 hours for a single build. They can also build on more platforms because the build process is more automated with SPM.

Timing is important too, and SPM helps with the underlying process so that you have efficient builds at the right time in the lifecycle.

"It helps you weed out your defects much earlier so that you have continuous integration," Lanowitz explained.

The full Software Production Management report is available to subscribers at the voke Web site.