Impacts of collaborative IS on software development project success in Indian software firms: a service perspective

The collaborative work of team members has become a common occurrence in software development projects. Collaborative information systems (CIS), designed to facilitate and support teamwork, appear critical for software project success. However, the quality and convenience of the services and functions delivered by CIS have not received robust attention in academia. Hence, the current study investigates the role of the CIS service characteristics of service quality and service convenience in teamwork and software development project success using DeLone and McLean’s (D&M) Information System (IS) Success Model as the theoretical framework. This study incorporates the success indicators of teamwork quality, teamwork performance, and project success as measured by software quality and project performance. Data from 153 Indian software companies confirm that collaborative IS services, as well as teamwork quality/performance, are central to software development project success. We believe that the findings of this study will be helpful to project managers of software development firms.     

A knowledge-based evolutionary assistant to software development project scheduling

The scheduling of software development projects is a central, non-trivial and costly task for software companies. This task is not exempt of erroneous decisions caused by human limitations inherent to project managers. In this paper, we propose a knowledge-based evolutionary approach with the aim of assisting to project managers at the early stage of scheduling software projects. Given a software project to be scheduled, the approach automatically designs feasible schedules for the project, and evaluates each designed schedule according to an optimization objective that is priority for managers at the mentioned stage. Our objective is to assign the most effective set of employees to each project activity. For this reason, the evaluation of designed schedules in our approach is developed based on available knowledge about the competence of the employees involved in each schedule. This knowledge arises from historical information about the participation of the employees in already executed projects. In order to evaluate the performance of our evolutionary approach, we present computational experiments developed over eight different sets of problem instances. The obtained results are promising since this approach has reached an optimal level of effectivity on seven of the eight mentioned sets, and a high level of effectivity on the remaining set.     

The mechanisms of project management of software development

The changing environments of software development such as component-based, distributed and outsourced software development require matching changes by project managers to monitor, control and coordinate their projects. While the objectives of project management may be well established, the mechanisms with which those objectives are achieved are less well known. An empirical study was undertaken to investigate which mechanisms were used by practising project managers to monitor, control and coordinate software development projects.First, the types of mechanisms are discussed so that the mechanisms can be classified usefully. Then, the design of the empirical study is described. The data were collected through structured interview, which provided both quantitative and qualitative data. The data are analysed for each mechanism separately and the findings presented. The study found that project managers use multiple mechanisms to achieve project management objectives and use the same mechanism to serve multiple objectives. Further research is suggested to investigate project management from the opposite orientation, that is, which objectives are served by specific project management mechanisms.     

The impact of global dispersion on coordination,team performance and software quality – A systematic literature review

ContextGlobal software development (GSD) contains different context setting dimensions, which are essential for effective teamwork and success of projects. Although considerable research effort has been made in this area, as yet, no agreement has been reached about the impact of these dispersion dimensions on team coordination and project outcomes.ObjectiveThis paper summarizes empirical evidence on the impact of global dispersion dimensions on coordination, team performance and project outcomes.MethodWe performed a systematic literature review of 46 publications from 25 journals and 19 conference and workshop proceedings, which were published between 2001 and 2013. Thematic analysis was used to identify global dimensions and their measures. Vote counting was used to decide on the impact trends of dispersion dimensions on team performance and software quality.ResultsGlobal dispersion dimensions are consistently conceptualized, but quantified in many different ways. Different dispersion dimensions are associated with a distinct set of coordination challenges. Overall, geographical dispersion tends to have a negative impact on team performance and software quality. Temporal dispersion tends to have a negative impact on software quality, but its impact on team performance is inconsistent and can be explained by type of performance.ConclusionFor researchers, we reveal several opportunities for future research, such as coordination challenges in inter-organizational software projects, impact of processes and practices mismatches on project outcomes, evolution of coordination needs and mechanism over time and impact of dispersion dimensions on open source project outcomes. For practitioners, they should consider the tradeoff between cost and benefits while dispersing tasks, alignment impact of dispersion dimensions with individual and organizational objectives, coordination mechanisms as situational approaches and collocation of development activities of high quality demand components in GSD projects.     

Applying Q-methodology to analyse the success factors in GSD

ContextThe context of this paper is Global Software Development (GSD) which is a current trend concerning the development of software in a distributed manner throughout different countries. This paradigm has several advantages, but unfortunately there are a number of challenges that hinder projects’ successful development.ObjectiveThe main goal of this paper is to discover which factors affect the success of GSD projects and how these are ranked by researchers and practitioners.MethodThis paper analyses the relevant success factors reported in literature. These were collected by conducting a literature review, as a result of which 39 GSD success factors were selected. Q-methodology was then followed to conduct a survey from which the opinions of 21 experts in GSD were collected.ResultsThe data indicated that the best ranked GSD success factors are staff motivation, skilled human resources and the identification of roles and responsibilities. The lowest scores were, surprisingly, language barriers, time zone differences between sites, cultural differences and geographical distance which, to date, have frequently been considered by researchers as the most influential factors in GSD. This study additionally shows the results according to the different points of view of the respondents involved and the context of the projects.ConclusionThis study indicates that there are different points of view as regards which issues are most important to success when setting up a GSD project. For instance, some experts prefer a knowledge focus, while others prefer a project management approach in which the most important issues are those related to management (risks, coordination) and so on.The results obtained have also shown that the challenges of GSD are changing, since the critical issues were initially related to the various types of distances (geographical, temporal, socio-cultural, language). However, there is now a greater concern for the team members’ features and skills.     

Quality assessment in competition-based software crowdsourcing

Quality assessment is a critical component in crowdsourcing-based software engineering (CBSE) as software products are developed by the crowd with unknown or varied skills and motivations. In this paper, we propose a novel metric called the project score to measure the performance of projects and the quality of products for competitionbased software crowdsourcing development (CBSCD) activities. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to deal with the quality issue of CBSE in the perspective of projects instead of contests. In particular, we develop a hierarchical quality evaluation framework for CBSCD projects and come up with two metric aggregation models for project scores. The first model is a modified squale model that can locate the software modules of poor quality, and the second one is a clustering-based aggregationmodel, which takes different impacts of phases into account. To test the effectiveness of the proposed metrics, we conduct an empirical study on TopCoder, which is a famous CBSCD platform. Results show that the proposed project score is a strong indicator of the performance and product quality of CBSCD projects.We also find that the clustering-based aggregation model outperforms the Squale one by increasing the percentage of the performance evaluation criterion of aggregation models by an additional 29%. Our approach to quality assessment for CBSCD projects could potentially facilitate software managers to assess the overall quality of a crowdsourced project consisting of programming contests.     

A validated ontology for global software development

The global software development (GSD) paradigm has, over the last 15 fifteen years, shifted from being novel and ground breaking to being widely adopted and mainstream. This wide adoption is partly owing to the many benefits provided by GSD, such as reduced labour costs, proximity to new markets and access to a diverse and experienced skills pool. Yet taking advantage of these benefits is far from straightforward, and research literature now includes a proliferation of guidelines, reviews and models to support the GSD industry. Although this active area of study is firmly established as a research area in its own right, the boundaries between general software engineering and GSD are somewhat confused and poorly defined. In an effort to consolidate our understanding of GSD, we have developed an ontology in order to capture the most relevant terms, concepts and relationships related to the goals, barriers and features of GSD projects. The study we present here builds on research conducted in a collaboration project between industry and academia, in which we developed an ontology in order to provide practitioners with a “common language and conceptualisation”. Its successful outcome encouraged us to create a broader ontology that captures the current trends in GSD literature. The key ontology, along with its three subontologies, are the result of a review of the relevant literature, together with several expert evaluations. This ontology can serve as a useful introduction to GSD for researchers who are new to the paradigm. Moreover, practitioners can take advantage of it in order to contextualise their projects and predict and detect possible barriers. What is more, using a common language will help both researchers and practitioners to avoid ambiguities and misunderstanding.     

How experienced project managers assess risk

Software development projects, given their diverse and abstract nature, offer unique challenges and risks. Although a substantial body of literature has been written to address project risk management, my experience in the field led me to question whether this literature accurately mirrors the concerns of real-world project managers. To confirm my suspicions, I surveyed 14 experienced application systems developers, all located in Ireland. All survey participants manage custom-built, software-intensive application development projects that originate from external clients. The survey focused on three major areas: (1) Which characteristics of the customer, the application, and so on, do experienced software project managers consider important when planning new development projects for new, external clients? (2) How do these characteristics relate to accepted software project risk drivers? (3) Do most project managers characterize new projects in generally the same way, or do different project managers use different perceptual lenses when viewing new projects? This survey of a homogenous group of project managers revealed a surprising diversity of risk management concerns     

An ANFIS approach for evaluation of team-level service climate in GSD projects using Taguchi-genetic learning algorithm

The GSD team-level service climate is one of the key determinants to achieve the outcome of global software development (GSD) projects from the software service outsourcing perspective. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the GSD team-level service climate and GSD project outcome relationship based on adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) with the genetic learning algorithm. For measuring the team-level service climate, the Hybrid Taguchi-Genetic Learning Algorithm (HTGLA) is adopted in the ANFIS, which is more appropriate to determine the optimal premise and consequent constructs by reducing the root-mean-square-error (RMSE) of service climate criteria. For measuring the GSD team-level service climate, synthesizing the literature reviews and consistent with the earlier studies on IT service climate which is classified into three main criterion: managerial practices (deliver quality of service), global service climate (measure overall perceptions), service leadership (goal setting, work planning, and coordination) which comprises 25 GSD team-level service climate attributes. The experimental results show that the optimal prediction error is obtained by the HTGLA-based ANFIS approach is 3.26%, which outperforms the earlier result that is the optimal prediction errors 4.41% and 5.75% determined, respectively, by ANFIS and statistical methods.     

Knowledge‐related challenges and solutions in GSD

A number knowledge‐related challenges may complicate the work in global software development (GSD) projects. In practice, even a small amount of missing knowledge may cause an activity to fail to create and transfer information which is critical to later functions, causing these later functions to fail. Thus, knowledge engineering holds a central role in order to succeed with globally distributed product development. Furthermore, examining the challenges faced in GSD from a cognitive perspective will help to find solutions that take into account the knowledge needs of different stakeholders in GSD and thus help to establish conditions for successful GSD projects. In this paper, we will discuss these challenges and solutions based on an extensive literature study and practical experience gained in several international projects over the last decade. Altogether, over 50 case studies were analysed. We analysed the challenges identified in the cases from a cognitive perspective for bridging and avoiding the knowledge gaps and, based on this analysis, we will present example solutions to address the challenges during the GSD projects. We will conclude that through understanding both the nature of GSD and the KE challenges in depth, it will be possible for organizations to make their distributed operations successful.     

Integrating agile software development into stage-gate managed product development

Agile methods have evolved as a bottom-up approach to software development. However, as the software in embedded products is only one part of development projects, agile methods must coexist with project management models typically of the stage-gate type. This paper presents a qualitative case study of two large independent software system projects that have used eXtreme Programming (XP) for software development within contexts of stage-gate project management models. The study is comprised of open ended interviews with managers as well as practitioners, followed by a structured, fully traceable, qualitative analysis. We conclude that it is possible to integrate XP in a gate model context. Key issues for success are the interfaces towards the agile subproject and management attitudes towards the agile approach. Editor: Marvin Zelkowitz     

Software challenges: the weakest link in the software engineeringchain

The author compares the performance of software project managers and software technical personnel for five basic activities. Automation does not guarantee success in performing project management functions, but the absence of any automation often correlates with missed or delayed schedules, poor or marginal quality, cost overruns, cancelled projects and the other classical trauma situations of the software industry. The author presents a table of results from a study which gives the percentage of projects applying automation to software management tasks     

Exploring the relationship between software project duration and risk exposure: A cluster analysis

Software projects often fail. Thus it is important to find ways to ensure a successful outcome. One significant area is a better understanding of the relationship between the software project duration and risk exposure, as this helps project managers with pertinent information to be effective in managing risky projects. We addressed this need by adopting a cluster analysis technique to provide managers with insight into effective planning and control of their projects. The results not only revealed that risk exposures associated with user, requirement, planning & control and team risk dimensions were affected by project duration, but also showed how to manage software risks effectively through observing trends in the risk components. Based on our findings, project managers can adopt appropriate attitudes, skills, and practices to deal with risky areas more effectively rather than just identifying those software risks with which project managers should be concerned.     

一种面向ERP外包项目的开发成本估算方法

对于软件项目而言,项目成本的有效控制是每个项目取得成功的标志之一。恰当的软件开发成本估算方法将大大提高成本估算的稳定性和可靠性,从而提高项目经理对项目成本的有效控制。本文在深入分析目前业界常用的软件项目开发成本估算方法的基础上,针对ERP外包软件项目开发生命周期的特点,提出了以ERP程序单元为最小单位的一种项目开发成本估算法,即FRICE估算法。该估算方法已经在大量ERP外包软件项目中得到了成功应用、实践和验证,它能有效地帮助项目经理对项目开发成本进行估算、控制和管理。     

Managing uncertainty in software projects

Although it is impossible to predict problems that will occur in software projects, project managers can employ strategies that imbue their projects with greater resilience. Throughout a software project, a series of practices can be established to manage uncertainties. This paper proposes an approach to managing uncertainty in software projects. The approach seems to improve project performance and success. This work is based on the principles of evidence-based software engineering. We conduct an exploratory literature search and a systematic literature review. In addition, we carry out action research in a software development project. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to evaluate and improve this approach. Finally, we held a focus group to evaluate the final proposed approach. The exploratory review helped to characterise the difference between risk and uncertainty. The systematic literature review revealed five methods and 18 practices for reducing uncertainties. The action research applied some of these techniques and investigated whether they contributed to a better uncertainty management. In the semi-structured interviews, practical points of view were added to the approach. This work defines an approach to uncertainty management and describes strategies that allow team members to explicitly formalise and manage uncertainty in software projects.     

A Qualitative Study of Hard Decision Making in Managing Global Software Development Teams

We empirically explored the implication of hard decisions in the context of the management of global software development (GSD) teams. We hypothesized and empirically tested our belief that hard decision making in conventional development projects is very similar to GSD and differences arise from the nature of the relationship and the ranking of issues. Findings from a Delphi study illustrated our approach and shed some light into the management of GSD teams.     

Predicting weekly defect inflow in large software projects based on project planning and test status

Defects discovered during the testing phase in software projects need to be removed before the software is shipped to the customers. The removal of defects can constitute a significant amount of effort in a project and project managers are faced with a decision whether to continue development or shift some resources to cope with defect removal. The goal of this research is to improve the practice of project management by providing a method for predicting the number of defects reported into the defect database in the project. In this paper we present a method for predicting the number of defects reported into the defect database in a large software project on a weekly basis. The method is based on using project progress data, in particular the information about the test progress, to predict defect inflow in the next three coming weeks. The results show that the prediction accuracy of our models is up to 72% (mean magnitude of relative error for predictions of 1 week in advance is 28%) when used in ongoing large software projects. The method is intended to support project managers in more accurate adjusting resources in the project, since they are notified in advance about the potentially large effort needed to correct defects.     

Our worst current development practices

Successful software projects can result from avoiding the more serious mistakes that lead to disaster. Specifically, we must look at the actual results of similar projects; make planning and estimating formal activities; plan for and control creeping requirements; use formal inspections as milestones for tracking project progress and software disasters; and collect accurate measurement data, during the current project, to use with future projects. There is no substitute for solid empirical data used by capable project managers who are supported by automated estimating and planning tools. This combination can almost always be successful. By contrast, no data at all, unprepared managers, and manual estimating and planning are consistently characteristic of our industry's major software disasters     

Rule Breaking in New Product Development – Crime or Necessity?

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of applying general rules in organizations to govern multiple new product development projects. Data were collected in structured interviews with project managers and project members from seven successful projects within Swedish companies. Results show that projects either broke rules or that organizations had developed strategies to cope with the risk of rules preventing the progress of the projects. The project managers of the rule following projects reported lack of rule breaking to be the result of the rule design at each company, intending to minimize the risk of rules preventing the progress of projects. With the exception of the manager of the rule changing/removing project, project managers show a relaxed attitude to breaking general rules that hinder project progress. The study indicates that frameworks of common project management rules increase the risk of delay in new product development projects, unless strategies of rule breaking or dynamic rule modification are applied. Applications of emergent standard management philosophies and practices to innovation are discussed.     

A comparison of software project overruns - flexible versus sequential development models

Flexible software development models, e.g., evolutionary and incremental models, have become increasingly popular. Advocates claim that among the benefits of using these models is reduced overruns, which is one of the main challenges of software project management. This paper describes an in-depth survey of software development projects. The results support the claim that projects which employ a flexible development model experience less effort overruns than do those which employ a sequential model. The reason for the difference is not obvious. We found, for example, no variation in project size, estimation process, or delivered proportion of planned functionality between projects applying different types of development model. When the managers were asked to provide reasons for software overruns and/or estimation accuracy, the largest difference was that more of flexible projects than sequential projects cited good requirement specifications-and good collaboration/communication with clients as contributing to accurate estimates.