Control of Flexible Software Development Under Uncertainty

Abstract

When should software development teams have the flexibility to modify their directions and how do we balance that flexibility with controls essential to produce acceptable outcomes? We use dynamic capabilities theory and an extension of control theory to understand these questions. This work is examined in a case study. Our results demonstrate that flexibility may be needed when the starting conditions are uncertain and that effective control in these situations requires use of traditional controls plus a new type of control we term emergent outcome control.

An Empirical Examination of an Agile Contingent Project/Method Fit Model

“…This finding provides support for hypothesis H2 in which we hypothesized that requirements uncertainty is positively associated with relative fit perceptions. Additionally, this finding is in line with both prior theoretical recommendations and research findings (Boehm & Turner, 2003;Harris et al, 2009;Maruping et al, 2009). …”

“…Chow and Cao (2008) report that, when a development team uses an agile SDM, customer representative involvement is highly correlated with the team's ability to fulfill users' needs and requirements. Harris et al (2009) argue that one should use the combined effect of requirements uncertainty and user representative involvement to determine the most appropriate development method for a project. They theorize that projects with minimal up-front specifications need more frequent user feedback and that projects with more exact up-front specifications need less frequent user feedback.…”

“…Harris et al (2009) SDM for a project. They argue that projects with minimal or unclear up-front specifications need more frequent user feedback.…”

“…In contrast, agile SDMs are based on an incremental, iterative, lightweight approach that focuses on teamwork and face-to-face collaboration over formal processes (Baskerville & Pries-Heje, 2004;Kautz, Madsen, & Nørbjerg, 2007). Researchers have made attempts to identify contextual factors that indicate when one should use agile SDMs instead of plan-driven SDMs, but the generalizable evidence supporting the efficacy of specific factors is weak (Batra, Weidong Xia, VanderMeer, & Dutta, 2010;Cao, Mohan, Xu, & Ramesh, 2004;Harris, Collins, & Hevner, 2009). …”

Value-Based and Context-Aware Selection of Software-Service Bundles: A Capability Based Method

“…Furthermore, the implementation of more flexible systems based on component-based approaches is discussed [27]. [28] argues that there are different forms of flexibility in software development which can be analyzed from a control theory perspective. The method proposed relies on several existing methods.…”