Scorecard for Improving Software Factories Effectiveness in the Financial Sector

A software factory applies manufacturing techniques and principles to software development to mimic the benefits of traditional manufacturing. Software factories are generally involved with outsourced software creation. Outsourcing and externalization of maintenance services has become a common practice in financial companies for years. One of the characteristics of this sector is that they have externalized the development process, but they keep the top level processes in place due to strategic reasons. This paper aims to identify Key Performance Indicators which permit effectiveness to be improved in these types of organizations. The different key indicators are conveniently set in a scorecard that allows decision-making associated with top level project portfolio management.