239x Filetype XLSX File size 0.10 MB Source: smartbear.com
Sheet 1: ROI Calculation Worksheet
Collaborator ROI Worksheet | |||||||||||
How can you quantify the benefits of a code review tool? This spreadsheet provides a method to calculate how much time and money | |||||||||||
Collaborator is likely to save your team. Fill in your own values in the orange cells to get a personalized calculation. | |||||||||||
We find the following two metrics clear and easy to track. They comprise the focal point of this ROI worksheet: ▪ Developer time saved by using Collaborator to do reviews - Step 1 below ▪ Number of bugs found - we use this number to compare the cost to find and fix bugs discovered in QA or after product release with the cost to find and fix bugs found by Dev during during code review) - Step 2 |
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Background | |||||||||||
▪ The default values here assume 25 person team with 2 people doing each review for a total of 40 reviews per month (a fairly low review rate). | |||||||||||
▪ Cost to fix defects comes from industry standard information and SmartBear customer benchmarks. | |||||||||||
▪ This ROI is designed to be customized to match your team's review needs. We've provided default values as guidelines in case your own numbers are not available. | |||||||||||
Step 1: Enter data from your existing review process | |||||||||||
Number of people per review: | 2 | ||||||||||
Total number of developers: | 25 | ||||||||||
Defects found per review: | 8 | ||||||||||
Hours spent per review (per person): | 1 | ||||||||||
Labor cost per hour: | 50 | ||||||||||
# Reviews Per Month: | 40 | ||||||||||
Step 1 Calculation: SPEND LESS TIME ON REVIEWS | Current Process | With Collaborator | Additional Information | ||||||||
With Collaborator, developers do reviews faster and spend less time on reviews. | |||||||||||
Number of people per review | 2 | 2 | |||||||||
Defects found per review | 8 | 8 | |||||||||
Hours spent per review (per person) | 1 | 0.83 | Studies show developers find a bug every 10-15 min with Collaborator - avg 12.5 min per bug or find 4.8 bugs/hr. Assuming you're finding the same number of bugs, this value shows how long it would take to find them with Collaborator. Equals Defects Found / 4.8 bugs per hour / Number of Developers | ||||||||
Total hours spent per review (all participants) | 2 | 1.67 | Equals Number of reviewers * Hours spent per review | ||||||||
Labor cost per hour | $50.00 | $50.00 | Hourly cost of a developer | ||||||||
# Reviews Per Month | 40 | 40 | |||||||||
Avg review time to find one bug | 0.25 | 0.21 | Average review hours spent for a developer to find one bug. 12.5 min per bug inspection rate/60 min |
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Cost to Find Bugs | $4,000 | $3,333 | Equals Total hours spent per review (all participants) * Human cost per hour * Number of reviews per month | ||||||||
Cost per Defect | $12.50 | $10.42 | Equals Total cost to find bugs / # Defects found per review / # reviews per month | ||||||||
MONTHLY COST SAVINGS | $667 | Equals Cost to find bugs w/ current process - Cost to find bugs w/ CC | |||||||||
ANNUAL COST SAVINGS | $8,000 | ||||||||||
Percent Cost Savings | 17% | Equals Cost to Find Bugs with Collab / Cost to find bugs without | |||||||||
Percent Time Savings | 17% | ||||||||||
Step 2: Enter data on your cost to fix defects | |||||||||||
Cost to fix defects in Dev: | $25 | ||||||||||
Cost to fix defects in QA: | $200 | ||||||||||
Cost to fix defects at Customer: | $1,000 | ||||||||||
Step 2: FIND MORE DEFECTS IN DEV | Current Process | With Collaborator | Additional Information | ||||||||
It's less expensive to find bugs in Development than it is in QA or once the product reaches a customer. With Collaborator, you'll find more bugs. This calculation looks at the cost of finding & fixing defects if they are not found in code review, but instead progress to QA and customers. | |||||||||||
% more defects found and fixed using Collaborator | N/A | 30% | One customer surveyed (Customer B below) found 18% more defects, while another (Customer A) found 100% more. We'll choose 30% as a default but feel free to change it. If your current code review process is not finding many bugs, then you should probably increase this value. | ||||||||
# additional bugs that slip through a review to QA and customers without Collaborator | 2.4 | 0 | Equals Defects found per review (a Step 1 input) * % more defects found and fixed using CC | ||||||||
Cost to fix defects in Dev | $25 | $25 | See the Data from Customer Use below for more detail about these default numbers. We assume the cost to fix defects is the same with and without Collaborator. | ||||||||
Cost to fix defects in QA | $200 | $200 | Cost to fix defects in QA is defined in Step 2. | ||||||||
Cost to fix defects at Customer | $1,000 | $1,000 | Cost to fix defects that have reached customers is defined in Step 2. | ||||||||
Percentage of bugs found in QA vs Customer | 80% | 80% | A typical distribution is that 80% of bugs that are not caught in development are generally caught in QA, while the remaining 20% pass through to the customer. See Best Kept Secrets of Peer Code Review for more details. | ||||||||
Weighted Avg Cost to find and fix an add'l defect | $360 | Determines the Avg cost to find and fix a defect in QA & in customers' hands using dollar values entered in step 2 and the percentage of bugs you expect to find in QA vs at customers (entered above). Feel free to insert your own number here. | |||||||||
Cost to find and fix additional defects Per Review | $864 | $0 | Cost per review to find and fix additional defects that made it past dev. Equals # of addl' bugs that slip through a review * Weighted Avg. Cost |
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Monthly Cost to find and fix bugs that progressed beyond Dev | $34,560 | $0 | Cost to find and fix bugs that slipped through to QA and customers as a result of not finding them during review. Equals Cost to find and fix add'l defects per review * number of reviews per month | ||||||||
MONTHLY COST SAVINGS | $34,560 | ||||||||||
ANNUAL COST SAVINGS | $414,720 | ||||||||||
COST OF COLLABORATOR | Current Process | With Collaborator | Additional Information | ||||||||
Base License Fee | $8,495 | Floating license cost = $1699 * (1/5) Total Number of Developers. Includes first yr maintenance. | |||||||||
Cost per month | $708 | Cost per month during first year of usage. | |||||||||
Annual Maintenance Fee | $1,954 | Maintenance renews at ~23% of the initial license cost | |||||||||
Total License Cost over 3 years | $12,403 | Base License fee plus 2 subsequent years of maintenance fees | |||||||||
SUMMARY: Save Review Time and Find Addititional Defects using Collaborator (Results of Steps 1-3 combined with Collaborator cost) | |||||||||||
Derived ROI Values | Current Process | With Collaborator | Additional Information | ||||||||
Number of Hours Saved in Review Time Monthly | 13 | Equals (Total hours spent currently - Total hours spent using Collaborator) * Number of Reviews per month | |||||||||
Money Saved Finding Defects Sooner - Per Month | $34,560 | Money saved per month, based on the fact the developers find more bugs when using Collaborator. | |||||||||
Number of Additional Bugs Found Monthly | 96 | Equals # Add'l bugs that slip through to QA & customers when not using Collaborator * # of reviews per month | |||||||||
Total Cost Savings - Monthly | $34,519 | Equals Monthly Cost Savings Associated w/ Review Time + Monthly Cost Savings Associated w/ Addl Defects found - Cost of Collaborator. Note that we've converted time into dollars here for consistency and to determine the ROI. | |||||||||
Total Cost Savings - Annually | $414,225 | Annual Cost Savings Associated w/ Review Time + Annual Cost Savings Associated w/ Addl Defects found - Cost of Collaborator | |||||||||
Total Cost Savings - 3 Years | $1,255,757 | Cost Savings associated with use of Collaborator over a 3 year period. (Taking into consideration an annual maintenance fee of 22% for years 2 and 3) | |||||||||
Data from Customer Use | |||||||||||
Customer A | |||||||||||
Customer A is a national division of a multi-national corporation, with sales in the $100-300M/year range. Their division has hundreds of programmers working on a variety of projects, | |||||||||||
located across the country. | |||||||||||
This SmartBear customer previously conducted review meetings on some of its code, when time permitted or contracts dictated. These meetings tied up a team for 1.5-2 hours at a time. | |||||||||||
Then they deployed a Collaborator pilot project that was so successful that now reviewing ALL code using Collaborator is mandatory. | |||||||||||
Using Collaborator, Customer A's programmers now spend 20-30 min reviewing code, for a time savings of about 75%. | |||||||||||
They estimate they find about twice as many bugs using Collaborator. | |||||||||||
Overall results: Find twice as many bugs in 25% of the time. | |||||||||||
Other useful metrics: | |||||||||||
This customer calculates the cost of a programmer's time at $60/hr (which we consider lower than average). | |||||||||||
If each programmer now spends 10 hours per project reviewing code rather than 40, that saves $1800 per programmer per project. | |||||||||||
This customer estimates that if a bug costs $X to fix when found in Development, that same bug costs 10-12X to fix when found during QA and 30X to fix when found after the product has shipped. | |||||||||||
Let's give a value to X: | $25 | ||||||||||
Since Collaborator finds ~4.8 bugs/hour, assume in those 10 hours each programmer finds 48 bugs. By their admission, that's twice as many as they would otherwise have found. | |||||||||||
So if they review for 10 hours, they're finding an additional 24 bugs per programmer per project. | |||||||||||
Additional cost that would have been incurred when finding/fixing those 24 bugs in QA and in customers' hands (assume 80/20 split): | $8,880 | ||||||||||
That's a SAVINGS PER PROGRAMMER PER 10 HRs of Review | $8,880 | ||||||||||
Customer B | |||||||||||
Customer B is a $2-3B/year multi-national software company. They tried Collaborator in a four-month pilot project with about 50 developers and compared the results to their existing code | |||||||||||
review process. This pilot program was so successful that the company deployed Collaborator to more than 1000 developers. | |||||||||||
Results | |||||||||||
The company calculated that Collaborator would save them more than $800,000 per year vs. their existing review process. When subtracting out the licensing and approximate | |||||||||||
implementation costs, the total ROI (for the first year) is about $720,000 – but that includes the entire purchase price of the software! And, they were able to review 100%, up from 60%. | |||||||||||
▪ As a benchmark, their cost of a developer's time is $63. | |||||||||||
▪ This customer found 18% more bugs during code review than with current process. | |||||||||||
▪ That 18% broke down as follows: 16% were bugs previously found during QA while 2% were bugs previously found at customer. | |||||||||||
▪ With Collaborator, they review code 33% faster than with their old process (400 Lines of Code per hour vs 300). | |||||||||||
Costs to Fix Bugs from Various Sources | |||||||||||
According to one customer, costs to find and fix bugs were | |||||||||||
▪ During Development: $275 total cost to find and fix bugs during the Development phase. They found 11 bugs in Development. Cost per bug found in Dev = $25 | |||||||||||
▪ During QA: $33,000 total cost to find and fix bugs in QA. They found 163 bugs. Cost per bug found in QA = $202 / bug (which is about 8X the cost per bug in Dev) | |||||||||||
▪ Once released to customers: $141,000 total cost to fix bugs that reach customers. Customers found 141 bugs. Cost per bug found after release = $1000/bug (about 40X the cost per bug in Dev) | |||||||||||
Let's assume 100 bugs were found and fixed in Code Review. Of those, 85 would otherwise have been found and fixed in QA, and 15 would otherwise have been found and fixed | |||||||||||
after release to customers. Using the customer data above: | |||||||||||
Cost to find & fix bugs during Dev | $25 | ||||||||||
Cost to find & fix bugs in QA | $202 | ||||||||||
Cost to find & fix bugs released to customers | $1,000 | ||||||||||
Cost to find & fix 85 bugs in QA and 15 at customer | $32,000 | ||||||||||
Cost to find & fix 100 bugs found during Dev w/code review | $2,500 | ||||||||||
Cost savings for every 100 bugs that exist in the code | $29,500 | ||||||||||
Another Set of Industry Data | |||||||||||
Note: This information is outlined in detail in the free book, Best Kept Secrets for Peer Code Review, available at www.CodeReviewBook.com. | |||||||||||
Costs to Find and Fix Bugs | One SmartBear customer | HP Study* | Costs for Customer detailed in book | ||||||||
In Dev | X | X | X | ||||||||
In QA | 10-12X | 8X | |||||||||
Once Product is Released | 30X | 100X (HP) | 40X | ||||||||
*See Best Kept Secrets of Peer Code Review for more info on the HP study. As a manufacturing company for B2C products, HP has a very high cost to fix bugs once they're in the field. | |||||||||||
Background, Benefits and Facts | |||||||||||
SmartBear Software has done an extensive study on the effectiveness of tool-assisted code review, and we’ve collected specific ROI data from our customers. We’re sharing this information | |||||||||||
to help you decide whether our Collaborator tool for code review makes sense – and saves dollars – for your team. | |||||||||||
Code Review with Collaborator helps development teams… | |||||||||||
▪ Find more defects in less time, which equates to better product quality and cost savings | |||||||||||
▪ Collaborate and communicate to write better code | |||||||||||
▪ Improve overall team knowledge level, resulting in better code quality | |||||||||||
▪ Automatically captures review metrics for easy reporting, so you can see the benefits | |||||||||||
Most of all, code reviews aren’t tedious – they can even be fun! With Collaborator, developers actually do them – quickly, efficiently, and at a time that’s convenient for them. | |||||||||||
Facts | |||||||||||
▪ While this number can vary widely based on many factors, the industry standard rate for finding bugs during code review is about 45% (without a tool). In other words, if 10 bugs exist | |||||||||||
in a piece of code, developers are likely to find 4.5 of them during code review, rather than later during the QA phase or after the product is released to customers. | |||||||||||
▪ In our case study at Cisco, which spanned 50 developers, 2500 reviews, and 3.2 million lines of code, we found that with Collaborator, developers are more likely to find 70-90% | |||||||||||
of the bugs (almost twice as many), in half the time. | |||||||||||
▪ We found lightweight code review to be equally effective at finding bugs as heavyweight processes, but substantially more efficient, with reviews taking 1/5th - 1/7th the time of their | |||||||||||
heavyweight counterparts. | |||||||||||
▪ Across four studies of heavyweight inspections, the average defect detection rate was 2.6 defects per hour; our reviews were seven times faster. This time savings isn’t surprising, | |||||||||||
since our reviews didn’t include two hour inspection meetings with 3-5 participants. | |||||||||||
How is Collaborator so much easier and more efficient than other code review methods? | |||||||||||
The product is designed specifically to facilitate code review, simplify the process and save time: | |||||||||||
▪ Differences between versions ("diffs") are highlighted so you can see them – programmers don’t have to shuffle through a bunch of printouts | |||||||||||
▪ You can comment directly on the code – in real-time (chat-style) or when it’s convenient | |||||||||||
▪ You can review on your own schedule, at your convenience. Days are not disrupted with meetings, and meetings don’t get sidetracked onto other topics | |||||||||||
▪ Since you go straight to the designated area of change, reviews are more accurate. | |||||||||||
Collaborator ROI Summary | ||||||||
Collaborator vs Review Using Other Methods | ||||||||
This summary is based on your review data and presents an accurate overview of the ROI you can expect with Collaborator | ||||||||
Total Savings | ||||||||
Time | Defect | |||||||
$667 | Monthly | $34,560 | ||||||
$8,000 | Annually | $414,720 | ||||||
*Details below | ||||||||
SUMMARY: Save Review Time and Find Addititional Defects using Code Collaborator (Results of Steps 1, 2, and 3 on ROI Calculation Worksheet) | ||||||||
Savings Using Collaborator | Monthly | Annually | Over 3 Years | Additional Information | ||||
Number of Hours Saved in Review Time | 13 | 160 | 480 | Collaborator reviews are faster and more efficient than other review types, so it saves developers many hours per release cycle. This number is calculated in the ROI Calculation Worksheet Summary section using (Total hours spent currently - Total hours spent with Collaborator) * Number of Reviews per month. | ||||
Number of Additional Bugs Found | 96 | 1152 | 3456 | Collaborator helps teams find this many additional bugs per month that would otherwise have slipped through to QA and to customers. This value comes from the Number of additional bugs Code Collaborator helps find per review times the Number of reviews conducted (see Step 2 of the Calculation Worksheet to identify the percent of additional bugs found using Collaborator.) | ||||
Cost Savings realized from spending less time on code reviews | $667 | $8,000 | $24,000 | Collaborator allows robust reviews to be completed in less time, freeing your developers to focus on other projects or higher-value activities. | ||||
Money Saved finding defects in review vs. in QA or after release to customers | $34,560 | $414,720 | $1,244,160 | By helping teams find bugs during Development rather than QA or after release (when they are much more expensive to address), Collaborator saves this amount of money, based on the fact the developers find more bugs when using Collaborator. This value is calculated in Step 2 of the Calculation Worksheet using Cost to find and fix additional defects per month times Number of reviews conducted per month. | ||||
Total Cost Savings | $34,519 | $414,225 | $1,242,675 | This Total Cost Savings represents the total amount Collaborator is likely to save your team based on the inputs given. It includes two cost-saving components: Cost (time) saved doing reviews and money saved finding defects during code review rather than in QA or after release to customers. The calculation comes from the Worksheet Summary and is comprised of Cost Savings Associated w/ Review Time plus Cost Savings Associated w/ Addl Defects found minus Cost of Code Collaborator. We took into consideration an annual maintenance fee of ~23% for years 2 and 3. Note that we've converted time into dollars here for consistency and to determine the ROI. | ||||
In 13 fewer hours over one month, Collaborator helped developers find 96 additional bugs at a cost savings of $667 in review | ||||||||
time alone (from ROI Calculation Worksheet Step 1). When you include the higher cost to fix bugs after Development, Collaborator saved $34519. | ||||||||
Assumptions & Background | ||||||||
▪ This ROI calculates data for two separate Code Collaborator value propositions: 1. Spend less time doing reviews 2. Find more defects in the time spent (while defects are still in Dev). | ||||||||
▪ The default values used here assume 25 person team with 4 people doing each reviews for a total of 100 reviews per month (a fairly low review rate). | ||||||||
▪ As a benchmark, Smart Bear's team of 5 developers does 75 reviews/month. For a team of 25, that review frequency equal 375 reviews per month. | ||||||||
▪ Cost to fix defects comes from industry standard information and Smart Bear customer benchmarks (see ROI Calculation Worksheet for more details) | ||||||||
▪ The spreadsheet expects input for Number of people per review, Defects found per review, Hours spent per review (per person), Labor cost per hour, # Reviews conducted | ||||||||
per month, costs to fix defects in Dev, QA, and at Customers, % of bugs found in QA vs at customers, and % more defects found using Code Collaborator. | ||||||||
Results | ||||||||
Collaborator automatically captures metrics than can produce reports, so you can tell exactly how many bugs your team is capturing and how much time they used to find those bugs. | ||||||||
¨ Collaborator typically pays for itself in no more than two weeks. | ||||||||
¨ Even if it saved each developer one hour per month (very unlikely), Collaborator would pay for itself in 4 months (when amortizing the cost per seat over a year). | ||||||||
And if it's not going to do that, don't buy it! | ||||||||
¨ Collaborator is fast and easy enough to let your team review ALL of your code, not just 25% or 50%, which is all many teams have time to do now. That's a lot | ||||||||
more bugs that don't go out to customers. | ||||||||
¨ Developers actually DO code review when it's so simple. | ||||||||
Note: Indirect impact costs (cost the bugs have on your business in Support, Patches, Reputation, losing market position, Lost Business, etc) are not addressed here. | ||||||||
But they only make the ROI stronger. We also did not attempt to quantify the “softer” benefits: overall improved code quality, support of best practices, improved communication, | ||||||||
better collaboration, stronger team spirit, more maintainable code, knowledge spread throughout the team, and a safe way for junior programmers to contribute. | ||||||||
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