A model of the software development process

This paper presents a model of the programming process. The model has four parts. A resources model specifies how many useful man-months of design effort are available from project team members after subtracting the time required for learning and team communications. A system design model specifies how many man-months of effort are required to derive program module specifications, as a function of the number of team members, program size, and number of modules. A coding model specifies how many man-months of effort are required for coding, as a function of team, module, and program size. Finally, a checkout model specifies how many man-months are required for checkout as a function of program size, error detection and correction rates, and a design-complete factor. The model as a whole predicts that programmer productivity will decrease as project team size is increased and that project duration will first decrease and then increase as team size is increased. It also shows that productivity and project duration vary enormously as a function of project management factors, even when project complexity and programming staff competence are held constant.     

Team leader strategies for enabling collaboration technology adaptation: team technology knowledge to improve globally distributed systems development work

Active management of team adaptation of collaboration technologies offers an important lever for influencing success rates in distributed project work, particularly in settings characterized by high task interdependence, such as information systems development (ISD). Substantial uncertainty exists as to how a leader might influence such technology adaptation during project work. Prior research indicates that a major leader resource to accomplish technology adaptation in these settings would be team technology knowledge (TTK). This empirical field study develops a five-factor model of strategies regarding awareness of TTK that team leaders take in intervening to affect technology adaptation in distributed ISD projects. The analysis indicates insights into when and why these strategies are effective and how they relate to each other as well as the leader's awareness of TTK. The study provides a way for ISD team leaders to approach improving team collaboration from a socio-technical perspective as well as insights into potential levers for improving team technology adaptation and the efficacy of ISD projects.     

Enhancing development team flexibility in IS projects

Information system development projects face tremendous challenges because of business changes and technology changes. Research has shown that software team flexibility has a positive effect on project outcomes, but specific requirements for enhancing flexibility are lacking. Drawing from the input-mediator-outcome (IMO) team effectiveness framework, this research investigates the contextual inputs and team processes that lead to development team flexibility and how well team flexibility improves project outcomes. A survey was developed to consider a model derived from the IMO framework. One hundred fourteen members of information systems development project teams in China responded to the survey. Partial least squares analysis was used served to analyze the data. Results indicate that a participatory culture and cooperative norms are an effective foundation for improving required processes that include project coordination of the project and knowledge sharing activities. In turn, the improved process performance extends responses to changes in technology and the business climate. The improved flexibility in meeting change is predictive of outcomes related to project performance and quality of the final product.     

基于超图的矩阵制企业项目小组超网络形成机制研究

在众多社会网络中,由于现实世界的普遍性,合作网络一直以来是网络研究的热点之一。在企业中,有一些工作需要以项目小组的形式由企业成员合作来完成,矩阵制企业项目小组就是一种特殊的合作网络。本文以某消费品公司的矩阵制企业项目小组结构为例,以职能部门的人员为节点,以项目小组作为超边,构建基于超图的矩阵制企业项目小组超网络拓扑结构,对所建的拓扑结构模型有关拓扑特性进行计算和分析。然后,从动态的角度对矩阵制企业项目小组进行研究,建立节点具有竞争力的矩阵制企业项目小组的非均齐超网络形成机制模型,体现了项目小组的变化和增加过程。通过分析发现矩阵制企业项目小组中存在多重领导,对人员的绩效考核与薪酬调整都会起到影响作用,本文的研究可以帮助理解自然界和社会中的很多合作网络的变化规律。     

Team building criteria in software projects: A mix-method replicated study

ContextThe internal composition of a work team is an important antecedent of team performance and the criteria used to select team members play an important role in determining team composition. However, there are only a handful of empirical studies about the use of team building criteria in the software industry.ObjectiveThe goal of this article is to identify criteria used in industrial practice to select members of a software project team, and to look for relationships between the use of these criteria and project success. In addition, we expect to contribute with findings about the use of replication in empirical studies involving human factors in software engineering.MethodOur research was based on an iterative mix-method, replication strategy. In the first iteration, we used qualitative research to identify team-building criteria interviewing software project managers from industry. Then, we performed a cross-sectional survey to assess the correlations of the use of these criteria and project success. In the second iteration, we used the results of a systematic mapping study to complement the set of team building criteria. Finally, we performed a replication of the survey research with variations to verify and improve the results.ResultsOur results showed that the consistent use team building criteria correlated significantly with project success, and the criteria related to human factors, such as personality and behavior, presented the strongest correlations. The results of the replication did not reproduce the results of the original survey with respect to the correlations between criteria and success goals. Nevertheless, the variations in the design and the difference in the sample of projects allowed us to conclude that the two results were compatible, increasing our confidence on the existence of the correlations.ConclusionOur findings indicated that carefully selecting team member for software teams is likely to positively influence the projects in which these teams participate. Besides, it seems that the type of development method used can moderate (increase or decrease) this influence. In addition, our study showed that the choice of sampling technique is not straightforward given the many interacting factors affecting this type of investigation.     

Scaffolding project-based learning with the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK)

This paper reports the results of a study of the extent to which processes and procedures from the discipline of project management can scaffold online project-based learning in a graduate-level instructional technology course, by facilitating intra-team interaction, enhancing project outcomes and promoting a positive project team experience. With one course section using tools and templates from project management and one section using only free-form text forms and instructor guidelines as project scaffolding tools, team interactions were compared via qualitative and quantitative analyses of team threaded discussions over an 8-week project lifecycle. Project outcomes were assessed by comparing project product scores using the t-test for independent samples, while project experience was assessed via a post-project survey using the University of Wisconsin-Madison Student Assessment of Learning Gains (SALG) questionnaire. Results indicate that the project management methodology facilitates intra-team communication and positive collaborative behavior, but is not a critical factor for final product quality. The results provide a starting point for educators and researchers seeking to assess cross-disciplinary approaches to project-based learning.     

Functional Diversity,Absorptive Capability and Product Success: The Moderating Role of Project Complexity in New Product Development Teams

Absorptive capability appears to be an appealing concept in the technology and innovation management literature. Though absorptive capability attracts researchers from a variety of disciplines, team‐level empirical research on it is scant. In this study, we operationalized team absorptive capability as a multidimensional construct involving knowledge acquisition, assimilation and exploitation. This study also explores the moderating effect of project complexity between team absorptive capability and new product success. In studying the data from 239 new product development projects using partial least squares structural equation modelling, we found that team functional diversity is a significant determinant of team absorptive capability. Moreover, regarding the relationships between team absorptive capability and new product success, we uncovered that (i) new product success is dependent on the ability to understand the acquired knowledge, and (ii) the teams appear to be more cautious in putting the assimilated knowledge into practice to the extent that project complexity increases.     

Concept for multidevelopment project and team organization of product and process generations

Large and middle-sized manufacturers need to carry out multiple development projects simultaneously to serve a variety of products to markets with different customer needs. The purpose of this article is to explore product development project and team organization with respect to technology and design transfer strategy among multiple development projects, as well as their impact on project integrity and performance. The focus is on the strategic and cross-functional integration of product and process generations with distinctive platforms and their derivative projects. First, this study proposes a concept of multilayer development project and team organization, which builds a creative environment through effective information sharing among and within the individual development projects and teams. Second, using analysis results on six product development projects at a large Japanese computer manufacturer, it is concluded that multilayer teams are effective in realizing project integrity through implementing inter- and intraproduct and process generation technology and design transfer strategy. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Development of an autonomous aerial vehicle: A case study

This paper describes the design, development, and deployment of an unmanned autonomous aerial vehicle developed at the Georgia Institute of Technology during 1990–1991. The approach taken, the system architecture, and the embedded intelligence of the project as conceived by a team of students, faculty, and industrial affiliates is reported. The project focused on engineering a vehicle which performed an intended mission in the time, space, and weight restrictions specified as part of an AUVS 1991 Competition. This paper documents the system and its various components and also provides a discussion of integration issues.The project demonstrated capabilities of existing and new technologies, but also highlighted many serious integration issues, particularly when using prototype components. The project also demonstrated the utility and mutual benefits of academic-industry projects. All members of the team benefited by working on a real and tangible project. Industrial participates gained first hand experience integrating their products with other components and many saw potential for their products and services in new markets.     

IT project managers' construction of successful project management practice: a repertory grid investigation

Although effective project management is critical to the success of information technology (IT) projects, little empirical research has investigated skill requirements for IT project managers (PMs). This study addressed this gap by asking 19 practicing IT PMs to describe the skills that successful IT PMs exhibit. A semi-structured interview method known as the repertory grid (RepGrid) technique was used to elicit these skills. Nine skill categories emerged: client management, communication, general management, leadership, personal integrity, planning and control, problem solving, systems development and team development. Our study complements existing research by providing a richer understanding of several skills that were narrowly defined (client management, planning and control, and problem solving) and by introducing two new skill categories that had not been previously discussed (personal integrity and team development). Analysis of the individual RepGrids revealed four distinct ways in which study participants combined skill categories to form archetypes of effective IT PMs. We describe these four IT PM archetypes – General Manager, Problem Solver, Client Representative and Balanced Manager – and discuss how this knowledge can be useful for practitioners, researchers and educators. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.     

Intellectual capital and team resilience capability of information system development project teams

Adversities are inherent in the information system development (ISD) process and often put projects to a halt. However, it is unclear what capabilities the team needs to resist and bounce back from adverse events. The purpose of this study is to propose that team resilience capability (TRC), containing affective, cognitive, and behavioral factors is vital for effective project performance. Further, by adopting the conservation of resource perspective, we theorize that intellectual capital, including human capital, technology capital, and political capital fosters TRC. Survey data collected from 149 ISD project teams confirmed our ideas that TRC is strongly tied with project performance and is more affected by human capital, followed by political capital and technology capital.     

Successful extreme programming: Fidelity to the methodology or good teamworking?

ContextDeveloping a theory of agile technology, in combination with empirical work, must include assessing its performance effects, and whether all or some of its key ingredients account for any performance advantage over traditional methods. Given the focus on teamwork, is the agile technology what really matters, or do general team factors, such as cohesion, primarily account for a team’s success? Perhaps the more specific software engineering team factors, for example the agile development method’s collective ownership and code management, are decisive.ObjectiveTo assess the contribution of agile methodology, agile-specific team methods, and general team factors in the performance of software teams.MethodWe studied 40 small-scale software development teams which used Extreme Programming (XP). We measured (1) the teams’ adherence to XP methods, (2) their use of XP-specific team practices, and (3) standard team attributes, as well as the quality of the project’s outcomes. We used Williams et al.’s (2004a) [33] Shodan measures of XP methods, and regression analysis.ResultsAll three types of variables are associated with the project’s performance. Teamworking is important but it is the XP-specific team factor (continuous integration, coding standards, and collective code ownership) that is significant. Only customer planning (release planning/planning game, customer access, short releases, and stand-up meeting) is positively related to performance. A negative relationship between foundations (automated unit tests, customer acceptance tests, test-first design, pair programming, and refactoring) is found and is moderated by craftsmanship (sustainable pace, simple design, and metaphor/system of names). Of the general team factors only cooperation is related to performance. Cooperation mediates the relationship between the XP-specific team factor and performance.ConclusionClient and team foci of the XP method are its critical active ingredients.     

WIT: Weka interface translator

Advancement in technology turns the big world into one small village. Regardless of what country you are living in, what language you are speaking or understanding, you should be able to benefit from the accumulated knowledge available on the Internet. Unfortunately, this is not the case with English being the de facto language of most programming languages, services, tools and web content. Many users are blocked from using these tools and services because they do not speak or understand English. Multilingual software evolved as a solution to this dilemma. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a user-friendly toolkit named Weka interface translator (WIT). It is dedicated to internationalize Weka, which is a collection of machine learning algorithms for data mining tasks widely used by many researchers around the world. WIT is a collaboration project between the Arabic natural language processing team from the University of Jordan and Weka’s development team from the University of Waikato. Its main goal is to facilitate the translation process of Weka’s interfaces into multi-languages. WIT is downloadable through SourceForge.net and is officially listed on Weka’s wiki spaces among its related projects. To experiment with WIT, we present Arabic as a pilot test among many languages that could benefit from this project.     

PROJECT TEAM SELECTION USING FUZZY OPTIMIZATION APPROACH

With their high potential, high motivation, great problem-solving ability and flexibility, project teams are important work structures for the business life. The success of these teams is highly dependent upon the people involved in the project team. This makes the project team selection an important factor for project success. The project team selection can be defined as selecting the right team members, which will together perform a particular project/task within a given deadline. In this article, an analytical model for the project team selection problem is proposed by considering several human and nonhuman factors. Because of the imprecise nature of the problem, fuzzy concepts like triangular fuzzy numbers and linguistic variables are used. The proposed model is a fuzzy multiple objective optimization model with fuzzy objectives and crisp constraints. The skill suitability of each team candidate is reflected to the model by suitability values. These values are obtained by using the fuzzy ratings method. The suitability values of the candidates and the size of the each project team are modeled as fuzzy objectives. The proposed algorithm takes into account the time and the budget limitations of each project and interpersonal relations between the team candidates. These issues are modeled as hard-crisp constraints. The proposed model uses fuzzy objectives and crisp constraints to select the most suitable team members to form the best possible team for a given project. A simulated annealing algorithm is developed to solve the proposed fuzzy optimization model. Software based on C + + computer programming language is also developed to experiment on the proposed model in forming project teams.     

MINIMIZING RESISTANCE TO TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE A Power and Politics Approach

To minimize organizational resistance to implementation of an automated project management tool, a technology team at Apollo Computer used a power and politics approach emphasizing the role of coalitions in decision making. The team built a coalition favorable toward the new tool by involving key project managers in all phases of the implementation process.     

Web-based morphological charts for concept design in collaborative product development

Morphological Chart Analysis is one of the formal design tools enabling collaborative product development. It is widely accepted in the textbooks and by practitioners as an effective technique for conceptual design of products, processes, and systems. This paper proposes to exploit the Web technology to implement the morphological chart analysis method on the Internet/Intranet. A prototype system, consisting of a concept browser/editor, a functional analyzer, a concept generator, a concept assessor, and all linked to a central concept database, is demonstrated. Parties concerned in product development are able to contribute in different locations to the same project. In addition to project team members, even experienced customers and potential suppliers are able to contribute their ideas to the concept base using the concept browser/editor. The incorporation of various decision-making activities of concept design into one integrated Web-based system allows the designer to choose the most appropriate idea from potential alternatives in an objective and systematic way.     

A study of a technological development process: Human factors—the forgotten factors?

The aim of this study was to explore how human factors were taken into account in the development of a new type of drilling equipment. This study is part of a larger project on the understanding of human factors in the design and implementation of automated drilling technology. The principal study was a longitudinal study lasting 4 years that involved 43 interviews, offshore and onshore observations, and two surveys. The analysis in this paper is based on seven informants who were either part of the design team or the paramount project team developing new automated drilling technology for an offshore oil- and gas-producing installation in the same development project, in addition to project documents. The informants were interviewed using semi-structured interviews, and grounded theory based on the coding process of Strauss and Corbin (Basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques. Sage, Newbury Park, 1990) was used to analyse the data. The core category was found to be insufficient human factor analyses performed in the development phase due to the two main categories, namely (1) insufficient information coordination and (2) narrow focus in different phases of the project. This was found to contribute to increased costs, low user-friendliness, and end users’ insufficient knowledge of safe usage and potential risks. Our conclusion was that homogenous top competence involving technical aspects contributed to developers’ lack of understanding of the need for sufficient analyses of end user requirements and of the tasks that would be affected by the new technology. Hence, we argue that technological development could benefit from including human factors experts from the project’s outset to bridge the gap between the lack of relevant information and sufficient information on which to base development decisions. In addition, we contend that performing human factors analyses throughout the development of a project would be beneficial due to the potential of hindering cultural aspects such as a non-questioning culture, which is viewed as a hazard in high-risk organizations.     

基于模拟公司制的高职软件专业实践教学研究

研究了将模拟公司制的项目教学方法运用于高职软件技术专业的实践教学,使学生具备一定的实际项目开发经验和团队合作精神,实现与企业良好的对接。通过对高职软件技术专业课程的分析,建立了分层递进的实践课程体系,同时以项目为载体,建立了分级的模拟公司制项目教学手段,以适应不同类型的实践课程。     

The development of a truck scale management system for the sugar industry in Trinidad and Tobago

Summary

The paper reviews a project on the development of a Truck Scale Management System (TSMS) for Caroni (1975) Limited, a State Enterprise which is seeking to improve efficiency and consequently reduce costs in its operation.

The paper also provides a background on factors which significantly affect process automation. The most important of these relate to the lack of awareness by top management of the varied use and benefits of microelectronics and information technology, shortage of relevant human resources and insufficient investment incentives.

Automation of the weighbridge was given high priority by Caroni's decision makers because of allegations of falsification of weights, the inability to get timely and adequate information for decision making and the labour intensiveness of the manual system. A project was undertaken to design, procure, install, commission and operate an unmanned TSMS at both factories using local personnel to execute the project. Caroni formed a multi‐disciplinary team from in‐house, a publicly funded research institution and a local supplier. The team designed the system (providing a number of options), assessed the technology, acquired a number of microprocessor‐based modules including load cell technology, bar code technology, magnetic card readers and modems, and implemented the system as two separate pilots. Software was developed by Caroni to integrate all these systems. The team was successful in demonstrating the fully automated system under crop conditions but it has not been implemented in completeness as the decision makers required additional trials.

Cane operators were trained in keyboard data entry and the users, including contractors, were taken through the procedures before the system was put on stream. Caroni has organized training programmes involving this new technology for its engineers and technicians, aimed mainly at integrating new technologies with existing skills. The system could be commercialized. One cane producing country has shown interest in acquiring the technology. It is possible to package the system and target it for applications in activities such as grain and cement weight controls.

Some of the spin‐offs from the experience gained from the project include the automation of Caroni's juice scales at both factories, proposed automation of the juice clarification, evaporation and sugar boiling, and automation of the laboratories.

The system has gained acceptance by all those who interfaced with it. Caroni has had no adverse reaction to the TSMS from the workers but for future automation projects would have to develop strategies of redeployment and retraining to avoid the backlash of resentment and opposition which could hinder progress.