Software Cost Estimation for an international Pharmaceutical company

The Issue at hand

An American multinational medical devices and health care company currently uses Oracle Clinical as its existing EDC platform. It has implemented extensive platform integrations and customizations on this platform over the past decade. However, this platform is being retired. Therefore, they wish to assess whether it should build its own platform internally or select a new SaaS EDC platform and determine which EDC provider it should partner with.

The Service Provided

We carried out a software cost estimate service to determine the minimum, the likely, and the maximum cost of redeveloping the functionality in use of Oracle Clinicle in the programming language Microsoft .Net.

We started with a deep dive into the existing EDC environment. A deeper diligence was required to understand the full existing technical environment.

We needed to understand the scope, complexity, tools, integrations, interfaces, databases, data types, and similar underlying technologies to effectively build a cost model for redeveloping the functionality requested. We also needed to understand the company development model (e.g., staff, augmentation, 3rd parties), their respective costs (rates/salaries), and other financial constructs. This entails interviews and documentation review.

We then did the data analysis, analyzed the interviews and documentation gathered, and built a draft model framework. This was reviewed with company experts to ensure we had understood the data gathered and that its framework is accurate.

The functional size of the redevelopment project was measured by one of our certified FPA analysts, using available documentation of Oracle Clinical (e.g., user manuals, technical designs, etc.). In addition, company experts assessed which package functionality was not used and could be omitted from the project scope. Also, some additional functionality was specified to include in the project. The total scope of the redevelopment project was likely to be 3000 Nesma function points.

To get the best insights into the productivity of the company development teams, we analyzed a completed project developed in the .Net programming language. By measuring the functional size delivered in (Nesma) function points, and collecting the effort and cost data of the completed project, we got an understanding of the company's key metrics:

• Productivity: hours spent per function point delivered.

• Cost Efficiency: Cost in $ per function point delivered.

• Delivery Speed: Number of function points delivered per month.

• Process Quality: defects found per function point.

These metrics were used to calibrate the cost model using the actual data of the company's development team, ensuring optimal accuracy.

The outcomes achieved

The report highlighted a management summary with a short overview of the minimum, the most likely, and the maximum expected costs of rebuilding the requested functionality of the Oracle Clinical package as well as the newly requested functionality. In addition, scenarios regarding different durations and team sizes were summarized. In the detailed section of the report, many details were shared, such as the number of effort hours required per function/role in the different scenarios, the expected number of defects to be found during testing and in production, and many more.

This Cost Estimation report allowed company management to make a substantiated and informed decision regarding its 'make or buy' challenge at hand. When choosing the 'redevelop' scenario, the cost estimate also allows the company to monitor the project progress using the function points reported as ready metric after every sprint and compare this to the function points expected to be ready after that sprint.