The Role of Time Pressure in Software Projects: A Literature Review and Research Agenda

The finding that deadlines affect work in organizational settings holds particularly true for software projects, which are usually conducted under time pressure. While the role of time pressure in software projects has been extensively studied, the findings yielded are diverse. Some authors report a positive relationship between time pressure and software project outcomes, while others find it to be negative or to follow an inverted U-shape pattern. Since many aspects concerning time pressure remain unexplained and its relationship with project outcomes is more complex than it might seem at first glance, we synthesize pertinent research to develop a research agenda aimed at improving the understanding in this domain. Our literature review shows a variety of time pressure conceptualizations, research approaches, and research contexts. The results reveal an inconsistent picture of time pressure’s impact on software projects. Our research agenda includes five themes we deem beneficial to consider in future research

Optimization of process integration and multi-skilled resource utilization in off-site construction

Traditional approaches in construction project management assign each process to a trade contractor with an individual specialisation, and trades with the greatest work content (bottlenecks) have a significant influence on the progress rate of projects. A system with integrated processes, however, is able to function dynamically in response to variability in product demand and labour resources. This investigation aims to compare and contrast cross-training strategies that are applicable to off-site construction in order to create multi-skilled resources. To this end, the optimal number of additional skills was formulated as a constrained optimization problem. Then, production data from two prefabricated production facilities in Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia were used to construct a total of 1080 simulation experiments. Tangible performance metrics of systems were used to compare process integration strategies and use of multi-skilled resources. Findings show that choosing optimal process integration architecture depends on the level of capacity imbalance and processing time variability. This investigation optimises the decision making on process integration in off-site construction networks

A Soft Systems Approach to Knowledge Worker Productivity—Analysis of the Problem Situation

Low knowledge worker productivity is an important problem that needs to be addressed. Current research addressing this problem is fragmented and deals with different isolated elements of the problem. There is a need for a holistic approach to knowledge worker productivity. This paper takes the first steps of a holistic approach to knowledge worker productivity by using soft systems methodology to describe the problem situation. The main challenge of this research was the abstraction of the results from two literature reviews into simple rich pictures and specific root definitions to identify the fundamentals of knowledge worker productivity. The problem situation was explored from the perspective of two problem owners, the organization and the individual knowledge worker. The rich picture from the perspective of the organization highlighted that the organization must communicate what they perceive as value and create a work environment that promotes collaboration, encourages knowledge sharing, motivates and fulfills the needs of their knowledge workers. The rich picture from the perspective of the individual knowledge worker highlighted the fact that knowledge workers need to manage their personal resources, be effective and efficient to maximize their own productivity. This paper attempts to integrate these two perspectives into a holistic view.Peer Reviewe

A influência de fatores na produtividade do desenvolvimento de software de acordo com um modelo de estruturas teóricas

This work presents an evidence-based model describing the effects of a set of factors on software development productivity, obtained through an evidence synthesis method in Software Engineering. Thus, the relationships among this set and the software development productivity (observed phenomena) are described as results of combining theoretical structures capable of expressing and dealing with differences between different effects and uncertainties varying according to the types of studies found in the literature. Besides, to evaluate the model found, its findings are confronted with a survey capturing the practitioners’ perception (managers and leaders of software projects in Brazilian organizations). The degree of agreement between research (the model) and practice (the practitioners’ perception) shows that scientific knowledge does not differ considerably from the reality experienced by software projects when both of them refer to the influence of factors on software development productivity. The impression that research and practice on the theme go through different paths persists. According to this work, the reasons for this impression are more related to the use of non-standardized and, perhaps, inappropriate measures used to perceive and monitor the influence of factors as well as to measure the software development productivityEste trabalho apresenta um modelo baseado em evidências que descreve efeitos de alguns fatores na produtividade do desenvolvimento de software, obtidos através de um método de síntese de evidências em Engenharia de Software. Deste modo, as relações entre um conjunto de fatores e a produtividade do desenvolvimento de software (fenômenos observados) são descritas como resultados da combinação de estruturas teóricas capazes de expressar e tratar diferenças entre efeitos e incertezas variadas de acordo com os tipos de estudos primários encontrados na literatura. Além disso, para avaliar o modelo encontrado, seus achados são confrontados com uma pesquisa de opinião realizada para capturar a percepção de profissionais da prática (gestores e líderes de projetos de software em organizações brasileiras). O grau de concordância entre a pesquisa (o modelo) e a prática (a percepção dos profissionais) demonstra que, aparentemente, o conhecimento científico não diverge consideravelmente da realidade vivenciada pelos projetos de software no Brasil, quando ambos se referem à influência de fatores na produtividade do desenvolvimento de software. Persiste a impressão, entretanto, de que a pesquisa e a prática no tema percorrem caminhos distintos. De acordo com este trabalho, a impressão do distanciamento parece estar relacionadas à questão do uso de medidas não-padronizadas e, talvez, inapropriadas para mensurar os fatores e a produtividade do desenvolvimento de softwar

FULFIL: production control system for managing workflow, quality and flexibility in construction

Construction is an important sector of every economy. Evidence of below par performance in construction projects has been recognized by government and industry bodies. Traditional control systems with project-based approaches have not overcome endemic problems in the industry such as cost and schedule overruns and quality issues. The innovative control system proposed in this research takes a production-based approach (as opposed to a project-based approach). The FULFIL system, aims to stabilise the work f low, minimise interruptions caused by q u a l ity problems and maximise the f lexib il ity in process design. The FULFIL system of production control is based on four pillars: queuing theory, transformation/flow/value theory, factory physics, and theory of constraints. In order to propose the principles of the FULFIL system, analytical and simulation models of construction production are developed. This thesis is driven by seven research objectives: 1) To analyse the impact of workflow variability on construction production. The research results confirm that performance in construction is adversely affected by workflow variability caused by factors such as rework and capacity imbalance. 2) To establish a tailored modelling approach that precisely quantifies variability in the workflow amongst specialty contractors. This thesis proposes a new modelling approach using a relative indicator of variability, which takes both the standard deviation of time between completions and average processing times into consideration. 3) To explore approaches to stabilising the workflow in construction. Two principles for stabilising the workflow are proposed and tested. Limiting the number of jobs under construction and integrating work processes are confirmed to prevent frequent work starvations and overloads in the production network. 4) To explore opportunities for variability reduction in construction. Tangible performance measures in due-date-driven and rate-driven production are compared. FULFIL analysis shows that when new construction is authorised, not scheduled, the production is more efficient, controllable and robust against control errors. 5) To explore opportunities for variability buffering in construction production. The user-friendly framework for defining optimum-sized capacity buffers in the FULFIL system is developed and tested. 6) To explore opportunities for improving the flexibility in construction processes. Two sources of inflexibility in process designs are analysed and addressed. Depending on the level of capacity imbalance and processing time variability, different cross-training strategies are proposed and tested. When processing times are variable, capacity should be shifted in an indirect path to the bottlenecks. 7) To explore opportunities for reducing interruptions caused by quality problems and rework. Three variables of rework are analysed and strategies to address them are proposed. Rework duration and intervals, and the timeframe of call-backs are shown to have significant impacts on the performance of construction and can be effectively offset by using FULFIL protocols. This thesis contributes to the body of knowledge by developing a deeper insight into the dynamics of workflow, quality and flexibility management, and the resulting impacts on construction plan reliability. Furthermore it can assist industry practitioners in finding the most cost-effective way to operate and control production networks. Easy-to-use models developed and tested in this thesis can improve the traditional project-based controls in construction

A comparative study of the relative performance and real-world suitability of optimization approaches for Human Resource Allocation

The problem of Staffing and Scheduling a Software Project (SSSP), where we consider Human Resource Allocation (HRA) to minimize project time, offers a management challenge for Project Managers (PM’s). Unlike the general HRA problem, SSSP involves determination of the assignment of a fixed amount of resources to teams and the allocation of these teams to project’s jobs. SSSP problem arises across a diverse range of resources’ and project characteristics (discrete variables), and this variety has offered a wide range of HRA methods. The general consensus is that the benchmark for SSSP are Meta-heuristic optimization techniques using deterministic or stochastic simulation of time. However, different HRA methods and project attributes are considered by SSSP approaches, and their solutions need to be compared against each other. The majority of SSSP approaches provide their approximation using Genetic Algorithm (GA) validated by a synthetic data or empirical method such as Quasi-experiment. Limited studies offer the comparison between these SSSP approaches, either by a comprehensive survey or systematic literature review for qualitative concepts. We aim to answer a set of research questions including: what is the best way to show the quality and performance differences between SSSP approaches? And, are these SSSP approaches suitable for industrial adoption? Our thesis is that the best methodology is to identify according to the conceptual models used by the approaches a set of challenging data levels. In support of our thesis, we propose a systematic benchmarking and evaluation approach that encompass the data levels, and a set of quality measures. Next, we propose an empirical study that assess how PMs from software industry perform the allocation given the same datasets. The results of both works demonstrate significant differences between the approaches, highlighted four methods that advances the research filed, and provide interesting discussion on the PMs’ practices on SSSP