Software project process management maturity and project performance: An examination of Taiwan\u27s software companies

Researchers and practitioners argue that an inadequate software development process is one critical factor accounting for high project failure rates. a result, the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) was introduced by the Software Engineering Institute as a guideline for advancing project maturity and improving the odds of project success. To investigate the effectiveness of applying the principles of the CMM, a survey was conducted of 196 Information System managers in Taiwan. The results indicate that a more mature software development process reduces the extent of certain risks experienced during the project development and enables better project performance. Managerial implications regarding the CMM are described

The Moderating Influence of Inherent Project Risk on the Relationship between Project Planning and Perceived Project Success

Project planning is considered to be a critical success factor for project success. However, recent literature questions whether planning has similar importance in various project contexts. This research investigates the effectiveness of project planning on project success in various project risk contexts of software development projects. A survey based research design was used to collect data to test the proposed model. The results reveal that various inherent project risks can moderate the effects of project planning on project success and in different ways for various success measures. More specifically, the results indicate that project planning makes a greater contribution to project success when there is a low level of inherent project risk and its positive impact on project success diminishes when there is a high level of inherent project risk. The results of this study contribute to a more acute understanding of the contingency approach to software project risk management. Practical implications of these results suggest that project managers should put more emphasis on less detailed formal planning in high risk project situations in order to meet project success

Managing Software Project Risks Using Stepwise And Fuzzy Regression Analysis Modelling Techniques

software projects have a very high failure rate. This risk of failure is not always avoidable, but it is controllable. Thus, the aim of this study is to present the stepwise and fuzzy multiple regression analysis modelling, which studies the impact of different risk management techniques and different software risk factors on software development projects. Furthermore, there are 5 main phases in risk management approach such as risk identification, risk analysis and evaluation, risk treatment, risk controlling, risk communication and documentation for software development life cycle. The model incorporates risk management approach and SDLC methodology to mitigate software project failure based on quantitative and intelligent risk techniques. This study provides empirical evidence for the identification of risk factors in model identify and model software risk factors and risk management techniques that effect on successful software projects. Fifty software risk factors and thirty risk management techniques were obtained from the literature to respondents. The results show that all risks in software projects are very important in the perspective of a software project manager, and all risk management techniques are the most commonly used. The study indicates that forty nine software risk factors can be mitigated by risk management techniques according to the stepwise and fuzzy multiple regression analysis modelling techniques. The model’s predictive accuracy slightly improves in fuzzy multiple regression rather than stepwise multiple regression technique. The study has been conducted on a group of software project/IT managers in Palestine. This study will guide software managers to apply software risk management practices with the real world of software development organizations. The effectiveness of the new techniques and approaches on a software project has also been verified

Bringing Global Sourcing into the Classroom: Experiential Learning via Software Development Project

Global sourcing of software development has imposed new skill requirements on Information Technology (IT) personnel. In the U.S., this has resulted in a paradigm shift from technical to softer skills such as communications and virtual team management. Higher education institutions must, consequently, initiate innovative curriculum transformations to better prepare students for these emerging workforce needs. This paper describes one such venture between Marquette University (MU), U.S.A. and Management Development Institute (MDI), India, wherein IT students at MU collaborated with Management Information Systems (MIS) students at MDI on an offshore software development project. The class environment replicated an offshore client/vendor relationship in a fully virtual setting while integrating communications and virtual team management with traditional IT project management principles. Course measures indicated that students benefited from this project, gained first-hand experience in the process of software offshoring, and learned skills critical for conduct of global business. For faculty considering such initiatives, we describe the design and administration of this class over two semesters, lessons learned from our engagement, and factors critical to success of such initiatives and those detrimental to their sustenance

An architecture tradeoff analysis of postgreSQL

The Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM) was developed by R. Kazman, M. Klein and P. Clements to evaluate early architectural decisions of software development in terms of quality attributes to avoid expensive architectural mistakes. PostgreSQL developed in the University of California was a pioneer of many modern RDBMS systems. It is now an open source project. We applied ATAM to the postgreSQL project in light of identifying the architectural features and possible pitfalls in the architecture of similar DBMS systems. The result shows that we identified some sensitive points, trade-off points and risks of postgreSQL although we did have some difficulties when extracting precise quality attributes. This work proves the effectiveness of ATAM method and explores the possible way to use ATAM on general purpose software

On Evidence-based Risk Management in Requirements Engineering

Background: The sensitivity of Requirements Engineering (RE) to the context makes it difficult to efficiently control problems therein, thus, hampering an effective risk management devoted to allow for early corrective or even preventive measures. Problem: There is still little empirical knowledge about context-specific RE phenomena which would be necessary for an effective context- sensitive risk management in RE. Goal: We propose and validate an evidence-based approach to assess risks in RE using cross-company data about problems, causes and effects. Research Method: We use survey data from 228 companies and build a probabilistic network that supports the forecast of context-specific RE phenomena. We implement this approach using spreadsheets to support a light-weight risk assessment. Results: Our results from an initial validation in 6 companies strengthen our confidence that the approach increases the awareness for individual risk factors in RE, and the feedback further allows for disseminating our approach into practice.Comment: 20 pages, submitted to 10th Software Quality Days conference, 201

A Survey on Economic-driven Evaluations of Information Technology

The economic-driven evaluation of information technology (IT) has become an important instrument in the management of IT projects. Numerous approaches have been developed to quantify the costs of an IT investment and its assumed profit, to evaluate its impact on business process performance, and to analyze the role of IT regarding the achievement of enterprise objectives. This paper discusses approaches for evaluating IT from an economic-driven perspective. Our comparison is based on a framework distinguishing between classification criteria and evaluation criteria. The former allow for the categorization of evaluation approaches based on their similarities and differences. The latter, by contrast, represent attributes that allow to evaluate the discussed approaches. Finally, we give an example of a typical economic-driven IT evaluation

Uncertainty management in real estate development: studying the potential of the SCRUM design methodology

Real estate development is all about assessing and controlling risks and uncertainties. Risk management implies making decisions based on quantified risks to execute riskresponse measures. Uncertainties, on the other hand, cannot be quantified and are therefore unpredictable. In literature, much attention is paid to risk management. The management of uncertainties is underexposed. Uncertainties appear in the programming and designing phases of projects. The main goal of our research is to develop guidelines for real estate developers to manage uncertainties in those phases