The Proof/ Case study
An illustrative walk-through of how Acorn used human QA checks and burndown charts to see the real delivery date of a software project that kept missing its deadlines.
This is an illustrative walk-through based on real work, with details changed to protect those involved. The video says some of its numbers are made up, so read them as examples.
A construction company wanted software to turn the hand-drawn, days-long work of producing blueprints into code. It hired a software agency, which repeatedly promised a delivery date and then missed it, with each new date also slipping.
Where something was delivered, it often did not solve the problem. The agency's own forecasts could not be trusted, and the team did not get to a feature-by-feature estimate that would have allowed a reliable forecast.
Acorn had human experts verify each of 100 blueprints every day, split across four reviewers, marking each one red or green against the rules that should be working. Because every blueprint was checked daily, the remaining defects could be charted as a burndown chart.
Acorn cross-checked this against a second burndown chart of logged bugs. Trend lines drawn through the data showed early whether the team was on track, and the video describes levers such as removing scope and adding people. It also points out regression bugs, where a new change reintroduces an old defect and the line jumps back up.
In the video's illustrative numbers, the team could see within about three weeks that the 12 week deadline would be missed, and could talk about contingencies at that point instead of at the end.
Around week three the forecast was 14 to 17 weeks, and the work finished in that window. The client also finally had visibility into the agency's work.
Watch the video on YouTube (14:12)
Leaders whose software project keeps missing its delivery date and who need a forecast they can trust.