Return on Software: Maximizing the Return on Your Software Investment

General Case Break-Even Analysis

Looking at the solution graphically, a multi-alternative break-even analysis is simply a matter of plotting each cost function on a graph and visually inspecting for the relevant break-even points. Irrelevant break-even points, such as the break-even point between Plan B and Plan C in Figure 19.4, can be ignored. If the accuracy using the graph isn't good enough, you can use the mathematical approach described above to solve the relevant break-even points.

Looking at the solution algorithmically, it's a matter of first calculating the break-even points between each pair of cost functions. With n cost functions, the number of candidate pairs to consider is

For each break-even point, record that pair's name along ...