The Shape of Code

Economic data relating to software development is very very hard to find. Companies just don’t want to reveal how much they spent/charged to writing a software system. This kind of data is invariably confidential.

I’m currently working on the Economics chapter of my book on Empirical Software Engineering and the data is somewhat thin.

I’m hoping one of my readers can help out with a copy of the “DACS data”.

DACS (The Data & Analysis Center for Software), a US DOC information analysis center, used to sell copies of their Software Life Cycle Empirical/Experience Database for $50. The most interesting data set was the DACS Productivity Dataset containing effort and schedule data on over 500 software projects.

DACS was merged into CSIAC (Cyber Security & information systems Information Analysis Center; not sure if I capitalized the appropriate information) and the data availability is no more.

If you have a copy of this data, or know somebody who does, please send me a copy.

The person who put the data together, Richard Nelson, no longer works for the government, has a consulting firm registered in Orlando, and is an officer of the NASA Alumni League Florida Chapter. All the obvious searches for an email address fail, and I suspect that a retirement is being enjoyed.

Of course I am always happy to hear about any software engineering data that you think I don’t have.