John and Paola, thanks for your comments. I understand that there are many variables. I would like to convey to a non-computer scientist audience the significant effort that goes into software production in order to motivate software and component re-use. Otherwise a naive person may ask "why not just create the software you need on demand every time?".

If its not possible to give anything near an order-of-magnitude- industry-average-answer or range I understand.

Thanks

John


On 9 May 2011, at 23:27, John Daughtry wrote:

And what activities are you including in "producing"?

Sent from my iPhone

On May 9, 2011, at 6:25 PM, Paola Kathuria <pa...@limov.com> wrote:

John Domingue wrote:
I'm looking for pointers to how much time and cost is associated with
producing software code.

I am somewhat flumoxed by this question. What kind of an answer were
you expecting?

The time to produce code can depend on:

- what one is trying to build
- what it's built from
- development methodology used
- business model
- size of the team
- the skill of the developer(s)
- regulatory requirements
- the number of client changes accommodated
- the deadline

In addition, cost depends on:

- developer salaries
- company overheads

This assumes it's software developed for profit. Open-source
software is different.

The price quoted to the client is something else entirely.

Similar "it depends" questions are: how much time and cost is associated
with making a film / a meal / a school ?


Paola (with help from Frank)

P.S. The discussion of actual prices or rates could be considered
price-fixing and is therefore discouraged. See
http://www.limov.com/library/price-fixing.lml

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The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302).


_________________________________________
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email: j.b.domin...@open.ac.uk web: kmi.open.ac.uk/people/domingue/

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email: john.domin...@sti2.org  web: www.sti2.org








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