Starbase Announces Support for eBusiness Project Estimation with the Release of StarEstimator

Business Wire, June 7, 2000

SANTA ANA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 7, 2000

Project Managers Gain New Control over Slipping Development Schedules

and Cost Overruns -- Enables Integration with Microsoft(R) Project

Starbase Corp. (Nasdaq: SBAS), the leading provider of collaboration products for the creation and management of integrated code and content eBusiness applications, Wednesday announced the release of StarEstimator, an automated project planning, risk management and cost estimation solution.

StarEstimator is designed to ensure the successful delivery of software and Web development projects, on time and within budget. As Web development projects grow in complexity, accurately assessing the costs associated with those projects becomes more difficult and more critical. StarEstimator automates the planning process, improving the probability of aligning management expectations with actual project costs and completion dates.

StarEstimator lowers the risks associated with eBusiness development project estimations of budget, personnel requirements and application delivery schedules. StarEstimator, with import capability to Microsoft Project, is an integrated member of the newly expanded StarTeam family of products.

StarEstimator features a complete project baseline by providing the necessary steps for accurate estimation. StarEstimator provides the structure for defining the project, analyzing the size of the application, specifying the languages to be used, examining the team's capability, addressing management constraints, and finally tabulating the results and testing the methodology employed.

Every project is divided into eight phases: analysis, design, coding, testing, validation, configuration management and quality assurance, management, and documentation. Exact percentages of the project estimation are pre-allocated, but can be customized to meet individual program requirements.

"The risk of failure for IT development projects in the digital age is significant: fewer than 15% of projects (including integration projects) are implemented on time and within budget. CIO's should initiate a new application development (NAD) risk analysis process to evaluate project portfolios at conception and employ risk-based project selection criteria to support portfolio design, make buy/build decisions, establish priorities, and measure ROI," as stated by Al Passori, vice president of META Group's Executive Directions, and Karen Rubenstrunk, senior vice president and director of META Group's Administration.

"Accurately estimating the time, complexity and resources required to build Web projects is critical to a development organization's success," stated Lydia Patterson, vice president, Starbase products group. "StarEstimator will aid project managers in effectively managing corporate IT assets, and will assist them in securing the greatest return on their investment."

StarEstimator conveniently creates a complete estimation of cost, schedule, tasks, deliverables, maintenance and support requirements for virtually any type of software or Web project regardless of language or platform. Once the project model has been reviewed, refined and accepted by the project team, it can be imported into Microsoft Project and then into StarTeam.

The model is used within StarTeam to define tasks for the project team members. During the project lifecycle, StarTeam keeps track of actual task completion and task redefinition. Periodic reports from StarTeam can then be used to refine the StarEstimator project model, providing project management with ongoing up-to-date estimation of costs, schedules, tasks, deliverables and risk factors based on intermediate project results.

-- StarEstimator is the only estimation tool available that

leverages seven estimation methods, and draws from a database

of over 20,000 successful development projects across a wide

variety of projects and types.

-- StarEstimator allows users to make environmental adjustments

specific to their organization and run "what-if" scenarios.

What happens if a feature is added or if deadline moved

forward? StarEstimator presents the cost trade-offs.

-- StarEstimator benefits everyone in the organization: executive

management gains confidence in deadlines; financial management

receives realistic budgets; Web application developers work

within reasonable schedules, and project managers are rewarded

for achieving results on time and within budget.

-- StarEstimator is intuitive -- users are able to begin project

estimation quickly. Wizards and online help direct the user

through the intricacies of cost estimation methodologies.

-- StarEstimator delivers the power of much more expensive

project management suites, yet delivers the focus and ease of

use that software and Web development project teams have come

to expect from Starbase.

An evaluation download is available from the Starbase Web site, www.starbase.com. StarEstimator operates under the Windows 32-bit platform. Priced at $2,499 for a single user, StarEstimator is available by calling Starbase at 888/782-7700 or by visiting the Starbase Web site.