A group of OutSystems users announced yesterday that they have launched the first independent OutSystems benchmark to measure technical debt and productivity. The initiative has emerged from organizations that make intensive use of OutSystems, including Vopak and Plangroep (part of Cohedron). The independent benchmark is scientifically supervised by Professor Joost Visser from Leiden University and has been developed by Boncode, an independent tool-based consulting and research organization.
The OutSystems platform enables customers to develop applications "Fast, Right and for the Future". It is essential to pay attention to the technical quality of applications, especially to reduce and prevent 'technical debt'. Insufficient maintenance, low productivity, or having a high technical debt negatively affects the effectiveness of development teams. Thanks to the benchmark, companies can compare how well they perform when implementing and maintaining OutSystems. The goal is to optimize their systems, make them suitable, and meet the business's needs. This is particularly important as full-stack application development platforms, such as OutSystems, are increasingly used for mission-critical applications.
Setup
The setup of the benchmark is 'closed and semi-transparent'. This means that the detailed data is only available to organizations participating in the benchmark. Additionally, all data is confidential, and all participants know who else is participating in the benchmark. Although detailed data from participants is shared in the benchmark, it is not known to the participants from which participant the data is shown.
The benchmark consists of data derived from measurements conducted by BonCodes using its BonCat tooling. For the benchmark, three types of measurements have been compared: system size and growth over time (based on ISO 20926), the technical quality / technical debt of the implementation (based on ISO205010 / maintenance level), and the productivity of the team (measured in hours per function point). It is expected that 'operational stability' will also be included in the benchmark at a later date.
Wim Gerholt, co-initiator of the OutSystems benchmark and Director of Software Development at Vopak, says: "For Vopak, the applications we have rolled out using OutSystems are mission-critical. I have always been convinced that we have an excellent team of internal and external OutSystems specialists. Now we have an independent benchmark that shows the quality level we deliver while also validating the productivity boost. This is very valuable information for the development team and also for management."
Professor Joost Visser from Leiden University says: "I have been involved in several benchmarks over time. In this specific benchmark, we saw interesting correlations between technical volume and functional volume. We also gained insight into correlations between technical quality (technical debt) and the size of systems. I think the benchmark will lead to an interesting set of reference data. Think about how large a typical OutSystems application is or how many hours it takes to build or edit a function point. I look forward to further exploring this with this growing community over time."
The benchmark is completely independent and is not influenced by OutSystems or anyone outside the participant group. In November 2021, the first OutSystems benchmark meeting took place in a virtual session. The next session is scheduled for February 2022. Organizations that wish to join the OutSystems benchmark group can contact Boncode.
More information about the OutSystems benchmark can be found at: www.boncode.nl/outsystemsbenchmark and www.boncode.nl/outsystems
