Gartner counts costs for apps companies

Application development firms can save millions and compete with large integrators using project management tools to improve development productivity by 30 per cent.

Speaking at ABT?s Project Leadership Conference in Chicago, Richard Hunter, research director at Gartner Group, said a typical applications development company with 200 developers and 20 project managers on average salaries should expect to cut costs and gain productivity benefits worth $2.9 million over four years, by implementing integrated process and project management methods.

?The typical applications development organisation is not learning these methodologies to compete with large integrators,? he said. ?That?s one reason why outsourcing has grown so much.?

He warned that customers should recognise that systems integrators often have different goals to their customers, including margin retention and customer satisfaction.

Hunter said that applications development companies with 100 employees can expect to spend $10 million over a five-year period on cancelled projects. He advised applications companies to use triangulation and phased cost estimates for application development and track development using earned value analysis.