Software development productivity on a new platform: an industrial case study

The high non-functional requirements on mobile telecommunication applications call for new solutions. An example of such a solution can be a software platform that provides high performance and availability. The introduction of such a platform may, however, affect the development productivity. In this study, we present experiences from research carried out at Ericsson. The purpose of the research was productivity improvement and assessment when using the new platform. In this study, we quantify and evaluate the current productivity level by comparing it with UNIX development. The comparison is based on two large, commercially, available systems. We reveal a factor of four differences in productivity. Later, we decompose the problem into two issues: code writing speed and average amount of code necessary to deliver a certain functionality. We assess the impact of both these issues. We describe the nature of the problem by identifying factors that affect productivity and estimating their importance. To the issues identified we suggest a number of remedies. The main methods used in the study are interviews and historical data research.