Links

Benchmarks

Organisations that are responsible for credible industry benchmarks include:

• SPEC (Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation) provides a range of benchmarks, arguably the best known being CPU2000, which measures CPU / memory speed
• TPC (The Transacion Processing Council) concentrates on the performance of database products, the best known being TPC-C the OLTP benchmark
• SPC (The Storage Performance Council) provides several benchmarks that measure the performance of disk subsystems.

While I am generally disappointed with the depth and quality of information that is made available on the majority of Technology Forum web sites, the following buck the trend:

• SNIA (Storage Network Industry Association) makes several useful technical papers on IP-based storage technologies available.

Useful sites in the area of performance monitoring include:

• computerperformance.co.uk includes useful information on monitoring Windows-based servers

Project Estimating and Proposal Writing

For whose who are interested in the general subject of project estimating, Paul Coombs is a long-time colleague with 25 years experience in the IT industry. He majors in the functional aspects of bids and projects. His first book IT Project Estimation: A Practical Guide to the Costing of Software is an easy-to-read guide to the techniques for deriving the cost of proposed software projects. There is little existing literature on this subject, and what there is has a highly academic tone. The author has many years of industry experience in sizing and costing projects of all sizes and technologies, so the book contains much practical advice and easily applicable technique. His second book IT Project Proposals: Writing to Win has recently been published (July 2005). Both books are published by Cambridge University Press. See Paul's web site for further details plus useful supplementary information.

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