Chapter Review

To review, this chapter has presented a model you can use as a starting point for evaluating your company's ROI in the use of a requirements management tool for configuration management of use cases. Key points from the chapter include the following:

• ROI is a popular method of measuring the need for, or success of, process improvements and IT investments. The model presented calculates ROI based on the ratio of benefit to cost.

• Sources of cost used in the model include:

  • Cost of software, training, consulting and rollout team

  • Cost of tool use overhead

  • Cost of added review and rigor as a result of new tool and process

• Benefits considered in the model are only those related to reduction in operating expense (e.g., daily time savings and eliminated rework). Benefits accrued from tool support of use case CM include:

  • Savings from staff working more efficiently because they have a common, readily available, source of use cases to work from.

  • Savings from avoiding rework due to lost use cases over time (e.g., from staff churn).

  • Savings from avoiding cost of unnecessary development due to lack of visibility of use cases within projects and across projects.

  • Savings from reduced rework costs due to improved requirements defect removal from use cases.

• ROI from this model, with values provided, shows a 3.4 to 1 benefit to cost ratio. Your mileage will no doubt vary. The model is intended only as a starting place for you to run your own ROI evaluation.