Enabling Software Development Team Performance During Requirements Definition: A Behavioral Versus Technical Approach

Abstract

As software development projects continue to be over budget and behind schedule, researchers continue to look for ways to improve the likelihood of project success. In this research we juxtapose two different views of what influences software development team performance during the requirements development phase. In an examination of 66 teams from 15 companies we found that team skill, managerial involvement, and little variance in team experience enable more effective team processes than do software development tools and methods. Further, we found that development teams exhibit both positive and negative boundary-spanning behaviors. Team members promote and champion their projects to the outside environment, which is considered valuable by project stakeholders. They also, however, guard themselves from their environments; keeping important information a secret from stakeholders negatively predicts performance.

The Impact of Influence Tactics in Information System Development Projects: A Control-Loss Perspective

“…Process reliability is important to avoid mistakes and ensure the set expectations are met. Human resources and relations are especially important because ISD projects require highly motivated and skilled team members [19]. Adaptation and innovation are important because ISD projects have to cope with the unpredictable changes in technology [43].…”

Process and technology challenges in swift-starting virtual teams

“…Ease of use of technology [5] Time differences [28] Trust among team members [5,10] Mismatch in expectations [7] Well-defined task structure [5] Cultural differences [7] Variation in experience levels (with respect to effectiveness) [8,26] Variation in experience levels (with respect to efficiency) [7,28]…”

“…diversity [8]. The lack of nonverbal cues in electronic communication, combined with an asynchronous mode of communication, can reduce the salience of differences in cultural backgrounds and increase perceived similarity among participants.…”

Studying Organizational Computing Infrastructures: Multi-Method Approaches

“…That is, the large scope of the effort made it hard to provide concise explanations while a partial focus on sub-sets of the data often limited the discussion regarding important inter-relationships. For example, Guinan, Cooprider, and Faraj (1998) focus on the survey data and do not explicitly draw on the field work data.…”