ROI Calculations for Architectural Decisions with Rick Kazman

How do you convince your boss to let you make those architectural changes that you know need to be done?  Or, perhaps, for a new project, how do you get your boss to invest more and let you create a longer lasting architecture that won't require change as quickly?

Your boss, as a business leader, needs to predict, manage, and control costs while ensuring the return on investment (ROI) will be greater than the costs.  Your boss needs your help to do this when it involves software.  In this episode, Rick Kazman summarizes how to factor in cost when making architectural decisions, in part summarizing the Cost Benefit Analysis Method (CBAM) and the management of technical debt.

Listen now: (download)


This episode was carved out from the discussion Bett and Russ had with Rick Kazman a few weeks back on the Metropolis Model.

Links to topics Rick mentioned:

• The book Software Architecture in Practice (3rd Edition)
• The book: Architecture-Centric Software Project Management

Dr. Rick Kazman is a Professor at the University of Hawaii and a senior member of the technical staff at the Software Engineering Institute. His primary research interests are software architecture, design and analysis tools, software visualization, and software engineering economics.