Skip to main content
Log in

A second look at Faster, Better, Cheaper

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Innovations in Systems and Software Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

“Faster, Better, Cheaper” (FBC) was a systems development methodology used by NASA in the 1990s. While usually a deprecated practice, we find that, with certain caveats, it is a viable approach. To determine this we utilized a stochastic AI tool to determine the behavior of FBC for several case studies. In these case studies we compare results of using FBC with that of other optimization policies. In our tests, FBC is as advantageous a policy to use with projects as other policies, while avoiding their apparent downfalls.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. NASA reexamines faster, better, cheaper strategy. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3622/is_200007/ai_n8887228. Accessed June 2000

  2. Andrews JH, Li FCH, Menzies T (2007) Nighthawk: a two-level genetic-random unit test data generator. In: IEEE ASE’07. http://menzies.us/pdf/07ase-nighthawk.pdf

  3. Baker D (2007) A hybrid approach to expert and model-based effort estimation. Master’s thesis, Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, West Virginia University. https://eidr.wvu.edu/etd/documentdata.eTD?documentid=5443

  4. Boehm B (1981) Software engineering economics. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. Boehm B (2000) Safe and simple software cost analysis. In: IEEE software, pp 14–17. http://www.computer.org/certification/beta/Boehm_Safe.pdf. Accessed September/October 2000

  6. Boehm B, Horowitz E, Madachy R, Reifer D, Clark BK, Steece B, Brown AW, Chulani S, Abts C (2000) Software cost estimation with Cocomo II. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs

    Google Scholar 

  7. Chen Z, Menzies T, Port D (2005) Feature subset selection can improve software cost estimation. In: PROMISE’05. http://menzies.us/pdf/05/fsscocomo.pdf

  8. Chulani S, Boehm B, Steece B (1999) Bayesian analysis of empirical software engineering cost models. IEEE Trans Softw Eng 25(4): 573–583

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Cowig K (2003) NASA responds to the columbia accident report: farewell to faster–better–cheaper. http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=864. Accessed September 2003

  10. David L (2000) NASA report: too many failures with faster, better, cheaper. http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/business/spear_report_000313.html. Accessed March 2000

  11. El-Rawas O (2008) Software process control without calibration. Master’s thesis, West Virginia University. http://unbox.org/wisp/var/ous/thesis/thesis.pdf

  12. Fenton NE, Neil M (1999) A critique of software defect prediction models. IEEE Trans Softw Eng 25(5):675–689. http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/fenton99critique.html

    Google Scholar 

  13. Hardin M (1999) Mars climate orbiter nearing Sept. 23 arrival, September 1999. JPL Universe, vol 29, no. 19. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/info/universe/un990917.pdf

  14. Harman M, Wegener J (2004) Getting results from search-based approaches to software engineering. In: ICSE ’04: proceedings of the 26th international conference on software engineering, Washington, DC, USA. IEEE Computer Society, pp 728–729

  15. IFPTE (2003) IFPTE report on the effectiveness of NASA’s workforce & contractor policies. http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=10275. Accessed March 2003

  16. Jalali O, Menzies T, Feather M (2008) Optimizing requirements decisions with keys. In: Proceedings of the PROMISE 2008 Workshop (ICSE). http://menzies.us/pdf/08keys.pdf

  17. Jensen R (1983) An improved macrolevel software development resource estimation model. In: 5th ISPA conference, pp 88–92, April 1983

  18. Key S (2003) Columbia, the legacy of “better, faster, cheaper”? http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Columbia__The_Legacy_Of_Better__Faster__Cheaper.html. Accessed July 2003

  19. Kirkpatrick S, Gelatt CD, Vecchi MP (1983) Optimization by simulated annealing. Science 220(4598): 671–680

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  20. Korte M, Port D (2008) Confidence in software cost estimation results based on MMRE and PRED. In: PROMISE ’08: proceedings of the 4th international workshop on predictor models in software engineering, pp 63–70

  21. Mann HB, Whitney DR (1947) On a test of whether one of two random variables is stochastically larger than the other. Ann Math Stat 18(1):50–60. http://projecteuclid.org/DPubS?service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&handle=euclid.aoms/1177730491

    Google Scholar 

  22. Menzies T, Owen D, Richardson J (2007) The strangest thing about software. IEEE Computer. http://menzies.us/pdf/07strange.pdf

  23. Menzies T, El-Rawas O, Hihn J, Boehm B (2009) Can we build software faster and better and cheaper? In: PROMISE’09. http://menzies.us/pdf/09bfc.pdf

  24. Menzies T, Elrawas O, Barry B, Madachy R, Hihn J, Baker D, Lum K (2008) Accurate estimates without calibration. In: International conference on software process. http://menzies.us/pdf/08icsp.pdf

  25. Menzies T, Elrawas O, Hihn J, Feathear M, Boehm B, Madachy R (2007) The business case for automated software engineering. In: ASE ’07: proceedings of the twenty-second IEEE/ACM international conference on automated software engineering, New York, NY, USA. ACM, pp 303–312. http://menzies.us/pdf/07casease-v0.pdf

  26. Menzies T, Williams S, El-Rawas O, Boehm B, Hihn J (2009) How to avoid drastic software process change (using stochastic statbility). In: ICSE’09. http://menzies.us/pdf/08drastic.pdf

  27. Menzies T, Williams S, El-Rawas O, Baker D, Boehm B, Hihn J, Lum K, Madachy R (2009) Accurate estimates without local data? Softw Process Improv Pract 14:213–225. http://menzies.us/pdf/09nodata.pdf. July 2009

    Google Scholar 

  28. Menzies T, Chen Z, Hihn J, Lum K (2006) Selecting best practices for effort estimation. IEEE Trans Softw Eng. http://menzies.us/pdf/06coseekmo.pdf. November 2006

  29. Menzies T, Orrego A (2005) Incremental discreatization and Bayes classifiers handles concept drift and scaled very well. http://menzies.us/pdf/05sawtooth.pdf

  30. NASA. Beagle 2 mission profile. http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?MCode=Beagle_02

  31. NASA (1999) Mars climate orbiter mishap investigation board phase I report. November 1999

  32. Orrego A, Menzies T, El-Rawas O (2009) On the relative merits of software reuse. In: International conference on software process. http://menzies.us/pdf/09reuse.pdf

  33. Park R (1988) The central equations of the price software cost model. In: 4th COCOMO Users Group Meeting, November 1988

  34. Pendharkar PC, Subramanian GH, Rodger JA (2005) A probabilistic model for predicting software development effort. IEEE Trans Softw Eng 31(7): 615–624

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Putnam L, Myers W (1992) Measures for excellence. Yourdon Press Computing Series

  36. Raffo D, Menzies T (2005) Evaluating the impact of a new technology using simulation: the case for mining software repositories. In: Proceedings of the 6th international workshop on software process simulation modeling (ProSim’05)

  37. Raffo DM (1996) Modeling software processes quantitatively and assessing the impact of potential process changes of process performance. PhD thesis, Manufacturing and Operations Systems, May 1996

  38. Shepperd M, Kadoda GF (2001) Comparing software prediction techniques using simulation. IEEE Trans Softw Eng 27(11): 1014–1022

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Spear T (2000) NASA FBC task final report. http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/misc/fbctask.pdf. March 2000

  40. Tuite D (2007) Better, faster, cheaper-pick any two: that old mantra used to be a touchstone for development, but does it still ring true? http://electronicdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?AD=1&ArticleID=14997. March 2007

  41. NASA watch (2003) Faster–better–cheaper under fire. http://www.nasawatch.com/fbc.html

  42. Young T, Arnold J, Brackey T, Carr M, Dwoyer D, Fogleman R, Jacobson R, Kottler H, Lyman P, Maguire J (2000) Mars program independent assessment team report. NASA STI/Recon technical report N, pp 32462+, March 2000

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tim Menzies.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

El-Rawas, O., Menzies, T. A second look at Faster, Better, Cheaper. Innovations Syst Softw Eng 6, 319–335 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11334-010-0137-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11334-010-0137-9

Keywords

Navigation