Dan Galorath
Encyclopedia
Daniel D. Galorath is the President and CEO of Galorath Incorporated and the chief architect of SEER-SEM
SEER-SEM
SEER for Software is an algorithmic project management software application designed specifically to estimate, plan and monitor the effort and resources required for any type of software development and/or maintenance project...

, an algorithmic project management software
Project management software
Project management software is a term covering many types of software, including estimation and planning, scheduling, cost control and budget management, resource allocation, collaboration software, communication, quality management and documentation or administration systems, which are used to...

 application. He is a recognized expert in the fields of software estimation and sizing and the author of Software Sizing, Estimation, and Risk Management.

Biography

Dan Galorath attended California State University where he completed both his undergraduate and graduate work. He graduated in 1980 with an MBA in management.

Following college, Galorath worked in software development with a focus on software management. One of his earliest forays into the creation of a software-based software estimation program found Galorath working with Don Reifer on the creation of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Softcost program for R. Tauseworth. The program was used for the majority of the 1980s and is seen as one of the forebears of modern software estimation systems.

In 1984, Dan Galorath began consulting for Computer Economics, Inc. It was in that consulting role where Galorath became familiar with Dr. Randall Jensen's modifications to the Putnam model
Putnam model
The Putnam model is an empirical software effort estimation model.The original paper by Lawrence H. Putnam published in 1978 is seen as pioneering work in the field software process modelling....

. While Jensen's work was a marked improvement on the original Putnam model
Putnam model
The Putnam model is an empirical software effort estimation model.The original paper by Lawrence H. Putnam published in 1978 is seen as pioneering work in the field software process modelling....

, the work was not usable in a commercial environment. For CEI, Dan Galorath worked to architect a more user-friendly software estimation program which was known as CEI System-3.

By 1988, Dan's company Galorath Inc had formed the SEER Technology Division and Galorath was working as one of the lead architects on the foundation of what would come to be known as SEER-SEM. SEER-SEM took the usability which was similar to the work Dan had done for CEI System-3 and added historical case studies and a graphic user interface. These advances made SEER-SEM an application which could be used by project managers to better estimate the needs for their software applications.

Since its inception, Galorath and his company have made numerous improvements to the original SEER-SEM, adding a library of thousands of projects which have helped contribute to the product being used by companies ranging from aircraft manufacturers Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman, to electronics manufacturer Siemens, and even the United States Department of Defense.

In 2006, Dan Galorath and Michael W Evans collaborated on a book about software estimation.

Galorath received a lifetime achievement award in 2009 from the Society of Cost Estimating and Analysis. The award honored his contributions toward the advancement of parametric modeling of cost, schedule, risk and reliability for software development and maintenance, hardware development, production, reducing the costs of parts and assembly, and IT projects and operations infrastructure and services.

Galorath continues to serve as the Chief Executive Officer of Galorath Inc, which is headquartered in El Segundo, California.

Personal

Dan Galorath is the father of five, with children ranging from 11 to 26. He is married and lives in Palos Verdes, California. Dan is exceptionally physically fit and health conscious. His diet and exercise regimen was featured in the Wall Street Journal's health section.

JPL Softcost

The JPL Softcost method originally developed for NASA's Jet Propulsion laboratory is recognized as one of the earliest software estimation models. As the model's name suggests, it worked well at estimation cost and time, but was eventually replaced by JPL for its lack of risk estimation.

CEI System-3

As a consultant, Galorath served as an architect developing System-3. The underlying model was based in part on the work of Dr. Randall Jenson's public domain modified Putnam model
Putnam model
The Putnam model is an empirical software effort estimation model.The original paper by Lawrence H. Putnam published in 1978 is seen as pioneering work in the field software process modelling....

. Some of the characters shared between the two models include uncertainty the ability to estimate minimal time. CEI's System-3 greatly enhanced the usability of the Jensen's model, making it a realistic entrant into the software estimation market.

SEER-SEM

The initial version of SEER-SEM was 22,000 lines of source code and only operated on Windows 2.0. The current version has grown to more than 200,000 source lines of code and is capable of outputting to many third party clients including Microsoft Project and IBM Rational. Current varieties of SEER are widely adopted across numerous fields including banking, automobile, aircraft, and electronics manufacturing, and the US Department of Defense. The program now handles every aspect of software production, estimating time, resources, expenses, and risk.

Software sizing, estimation, and risk management

Barry Boehm, the Director of the Center for Software Engineering, University of Southern California, noted that this book helps to “identify the best investments for improving your software productivity and cycle time.” Though the book is written with SEER-SEM in mind, the general principles of the book apply to all types of software estimation models.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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