Good Software Development Processes Lead to Harmonious Project Teams Which in Turn Lead to Effective Project Performance

The modem world relies on computers in almost every facet of life. With the explosion of Information Technology, software development has become an important process. However, from the beginning, this process has suffered and continues to suffer from a number of problems. If these problems are not rectified, they can jeopardise projects and lead to project failure. Project failure results in a project being delivered: • without satisfying the functional and non-functional requirements requested by the user or customer • beyond the agreed schedule and/or • over budget. Research indicates that practising good software development processes (SDPs) can override these problems or at least minimise their impact, however the human element of group dynamics cannot be ignored, Demanding disciplined SDPs will lead to project team harmony and this will result in the improvement of product quality, productivity, time to market and customer satisfaction. This research established the relationship between the practice of good SDPs and team harmony and showed that good software development processes lead to harmonious project teams which in turn leads to effective project performance. Team harmony included the presence of constructive conflict and showed that the management of destructive conflict could minimise its impact or even channel it into constructive outcomes. The subjects of this research were third year undergraduate computer science students at Edith Cowan University involved in a year-long software engineering project. Data was collected through questionnaires and an interview and later analysed using the Spearman’s rank correlation against the project team final marks. The outcome of this study is that good software development processes do indeed lead to harmonious project teams, which in tum lead to effective project performance and favourable outcomes

Does Good Project Management Ensure Successful Software Development?

For many years the development of computer software has been plagued by poor customer satisfaction caused by missed schedules, underestimated budgets and the development of products which do not meet requirements. The ever increasing reliance on computers, as reported by Sommerville \u27\u27the result of the proliferation of computer systems into all aspects of life and business is that personal, corporate, national and international economies are [becoming] increasingly dependant on computers and software systems ( 1992, p.2), calls for more stable software which can be developed within time and budget constraints. To achieve this, software development activities must be analysed and ways to improve the success of projects suggested. This study investigates the software development process in an attempt to reveal the importance of project management to the process and establish which activities contribute most to project success. It is these activities which should receive the most attention when seeking to improve the software development process. Data was gathered through a series of questionnaires and interviews with software engineering students during their third year software engineering project at Edith Cowan University. This was analysed and conclusions drawn about the project management activities of the teams