Dr. Elizabeth (Betsy) Bailey

Elizabeth Bailey has been involved in the practical application of measurement for predicting, controlling and improving software process and product quality since 1979.  She has designed  measurement programs for organizations ranging from individual projects to entire business sectors encompassing tens of thousands of engineers.  A summary of relevant experience is included below.

Software Cost and Schedule Estimating
 

• Dr. Bailey is currently working with Dr. Barry Boehm (developer of COCOMO, the most widely used software cost model in the industry) to develop a model for estimating the cost to integrate commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components into applications.  The FAA is sponsoring this effort.  Dr. Bailey is also working with FAA projects to calibrate this model.
• Dr. Bailey has used and evaluated virtually all commercially-available software cost models.  She has worked with commercial clients, defense contractors and government (DoD and the FAA) to generate objective forecasts of costs and schedules throughout the software lifecycle.  The major portion of this work has been done through her affiliation with the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA).  Her most extensive estimation work encompassed  all software involved in the conventional upgrade of the B-1B bomber.  She has generated development and/or software support estimates for a number of other weapons platforms including the B-2, the B-52H, the C-17, the F-14, the  F-15, the F-16 and the Joint Strike Fighter.  She has also estimated costs for several data base systems in the areas of materiel management and aircraft maintenance.  Her work for the FAA involved an analysis of the tradeoffs between schedule and reliability for the Voice Switching and Control System (VSCS).  Other estimation work is outlined below.
• Dr. Bailey worked with a defense contractor in New Jersey to develop objective and defensible schedule projections for a system software project.  This project had experienced repeated delivery slippages.  By forecasting on the basis of objective measures of progress, extremely accurate projections resulted.  These techniques were successfully applied at the project level and at the level of smaller functional units.
• Dr. Bailey carried out an evaluation of cost models for the DoD Comptroller's office within the Department of Defense.  The results of the evaluation were summarized in an easy-to-read format in the style of a Consumer Reports review.  1,300 copies of that report have been distributed by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA).

Other Software Measurement Work
 

• Dr. Bailey is a primary contributor to Practical Software Measurement: A Guide to Objective Program Insight.  This effort was sponsored by DoD's Joint Logistics Commanders, Joint Policy Coordinating Group on Computer Resources Management.  She is a certified PSM instructor and had conducted PSM Measurement Planning workshops for the Army, Air Force (under the sponsorship of OSD's Acquisition and Technology office) and FAA.
• Dr. Bailey is currently working with the FAA to tailor the Practical Software Measurement process to the FAA's iCMM.
• Dr. Bailey participated in a study of DoD weapon system software maintenance for the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Logistics.  The study involved site visits to software maintenance organizations within all three services to gather data on the scope of software maintenance (size, dollars, people) and to recommend areas to be addressed by policy.
• Dr. Bailey was a principle contributor to the Software Engineering Institute's (SEI) work to define a core set of measures for implementation throughout the DoD.  The results of this work were presented by Dr. Bailey at the 1992 SEI Symposium.
• Dr. Bailey developed a software measurement program for the Aerospace Business Group (35,000 engineers) of General Electric, headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.  The measurement program was part of an overall process improvement effort.
• While employed by the General Electric Company, Dr. Bailey was one of four employees (out of 360,000) whose technical accomplishments were highlighted in General Electric's Annual Report for 1982.

Education

Ph.D., 1979    University of California, Berkeley, in Cognitive Psychology
B.A.,  1973    Stanford University (with distinction)
 

On her farm in Virginia