EngagementsIT services

Benchmark application-development effort per story point and pod

For engineering and vendor-management leads who need effort, productivity and pod benchmarks for multi-year application-development engagements.

Engagement type
Solo Pod
Experts
1 lead · 1 consulted
Hours
~35
Duration
2 weeks

What the client needed

A firm needed application-development benchmarks across skill sets: effort per story point for SAP ABAP, .NET full stack, C++ and MySQL work; year-on-year productivity improvement in multi-year engagements on Snowflake, Talend, AWS, MuleSoft and OutSystems; FTE size per pod; and how shoring and pyramids move year on year.

The brief

The questions on the table

As the client wrote them, lightly shortened. Client and respondents are not named.

  1. Q1

    What is the effort per story point for SAP ABAP, .NET full stack, C++ and MySQL development, and what makes it vary?

  2. Q2

    What year-on-year productivity improvement is realistic in a multi-year engagement on Snowflake, Talend, AWS, MuleSoft or OutSystems?

  3. Q3

    How do pod size, shoring and pyramid change from year one to year three?

The hours

What the work involved

  1. 01

    Set the benchmark frame

    Story-point definitions normalised across skill sets, so the numbers compare; pod definitions by size and composition.

  2. 02

    Built the benchmark workbook

    Effort per story point by skill set as ranges, with the drivers — complexity, legacy, test automation — that move them; productivity curves by year; pod size and pyramid by year, with the shoring shift.

  3. 03

    Cross-checked with a presales lead

    A testing-and-ADM presales lead checked the ranges against current bids.

  4. 04

    Working session

    With the client’s engineering and vendor-management leads.

Deliverables

What the client received

  • Effort-per-story-point benchmarksBy skill set, as ranges with drivers.
  • Productivity curvesYear on year, by platform.
  • Pod, pyramid and shoring by yearYear one to three.
  • One working sessionWith notes.

The terms

What an engagement like this costs

You buy hours in blocks and can change the expert at the end of any block, at no extra cost. Longer projects run in stages: pause after a block, pick up the next stage when you are ready.

Pricing in full →

Rate band
$65–$250 /hr
Senior specialists can be up to $500
Hour blocks
1 · 2 · 5 · 10 · 20 · 50 · custom
This engagement
Solo Pod · ~35 hours · 2 weeks

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Benchmarking an ADM vendor?

Describe what you need

For example: “We need effort-per-story-point and productivity benchmarks for a three-year .NET and Snowflake engagement before renewal.”

We aim to come back with matched experts within 24 to 72 hours.