Towards a Substantive Theory of Decision-Making in Software Project Management

Cunha, José C.; Silva, Fábio Q. B. da; Moura, Hermano Perrelli de; Vasconcellos, Francisco J. S.

doi:10.1145/2961111.2962604

Cited by 5 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The decision making of a special individual (software project manager) was conducted in order to increase the effectiveness of software project management . In addition, individuals make decisions in different stages of software projects.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, in addition to knowing the decision contents, methods, and processes, we also need to know which factors affect individual decision making. Obviously, personal factors may affect individual decision making, for example, personal preferences, individual experiences, and personal personality and knowledge . However, in software projects, individual decision making is a complex process and also depends on environmental factors.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Exploring how different context‐related factors influence the decision‐making process can help to identify best practices for making decisions . In the work of Cunha et al, 8 situational factors related to the decision of software project manager were identified: autonomy of software project manager, constant feedback, client involvement, support departments involvement, iterative planning, knowledge sharing initiatives, team members' commitment, and technical capacity. Harrison et al said that the rationale of decisions may be influenced by external forces and constraints, such as technology.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the impact of environment factors on individual decision making cannot be ignored. Otherwise, poor, even bad decisions are made causing project delays and failures . For example, if individuals choose a new but unfamiliar technology in a limited time, then training may become an issue and can create delays and add expense for projects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Grouping environmental factors influencing individual decision‐making behavior in software projects: A cluster analysis

Jia

Capretz

et al. 2017

J Software Evolu Process

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An individual's decision-making behavior is heavily influenced by and adapted to external environmental factors. Given that software development is a human-centered activity, individual decision-making behavior may affect the software project quality. Although environmental factors affecting decision-making behavior in software projects have been identified in prior literature, there is not yet an objective and a full taxonomy of these factors. Thus, it is not trivial to manage these complex and diverse factors. To address this deficiency, we first design a semantic similarity algorithm between words by utilizing the synonymy and hypernymy relationships in WordNet. Further, we propose a method to measure semantic similarity between phrases and apply it into k-means clustering algorithm to group these factors. Subsequently, we obtain a taxonomy of the environmental factors affecting individual decision-making behavior in software projects, which includes 11 broad categories, each containing 2 to 5 sub-categories. The taxonomy presented herein is obtained by an objective method, and quite comprehensive, with appropriate references provided. The taxonomy holds significant value for researchers and practitioners; it can help them to better understand the major aspects of environmental factors, also to predict and guide the behavior of individuals during decision making towards a successful completion of software projects. KEYWORDScluster analysis, decision-making behavior, environmental factor, semantic similarity, WordNet | INTRODUCTIONDuring software development and evolution, many decisions have to be made concerning people, processes, techniques, and tools.1 For example, facing conflicts, some developers choose a positive cooperative strategy, but others choose a negative avoidance strategy. What makes software engineers choose different decision-making behaviors? Different decision-making behaviors bring different outcomes, so the project's success depends on how individuals in a team deal with problems and make decisions. Although many tools and techniques (for example, checklists, and decision models) have been proposed to assist decision making in software projects, no one can explain how people make decisions in their contexts. 1 Individual decision-making behavior is still seldom focused on in software projects, although it is important for software development and evolution. Recently, Lenberg et al 2 proposed a concept of behavioral software engineering by taking cues from behavioral economics, which underpins the research that focuses on behavioral aspects of software engineers.According to social cognitive theory, overt behavior is influenced by intrinsic personal factors and extrinsic environmental factors. 3,4 Therefore, the factors influencing individual decision-making behavior include 2 aspects: personal and environmental factors. Personal factors, especially personality, have been explored a lot in the software engineering (SE) domain. Environmental factors are also known as situational or...

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Grouping environmental factors influencing individual decision‐making behavior in software projects: A cluster analysis

Jia

Capretz

et al. 2017

J Software Evolu Process

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The complexity of factors that influence people's behavior in SE requires special care when we study how people make decisions. For instance, the decision-making process in software project management is largely based on human relations [5]. Software project management decision-making can be characterized as knowledge sharing and is participatory, with the project manager acting as a facilitator.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal Discounting in Software Engineering: A Replication Study

Fagerholm

Becker

Chatzigeorgiou

et al. 2019

2019 ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM)

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Background: Many decisions made in Software Engineering practices are intertemporal choices: trade-offs in time between closer options with potential short-term benefit and future options with potential long-term benefit. However, how software professionals make intertemporal decisions is not well understood.Aim: This paper investigates how shifting time frames influence preferences in software projects in relation to purposefully selected background factors.Method: We investigate temporal discounting by replicating a questionnaire-based observational study. The replication uses a changed-population and -experimenter design to increase the internal and external validity of the original results.Results: The results of this study confirm the occurrence of temporal discounting in samples of both professional and student participants from different countries and demonstrate strong variance in discounting between study participants. We found that professional experience influenced discounting. Participants with broader professional experience exhibited less discounting than those with narrower experience.Conclusions: The results provide strong empirical support for the relevance and importance of temporal discounting in SE and the urgency of targeted interdisciplinary research to explore the underlying mechanisms and their theoretical and practical implications. The results suggest that technical debt management could be improved by increasing the breadth of experience available for critical decisions with long-term impact. In addition, the present study provides a methodological basis for replicating temporal discounting studies in software engineering.

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Towards Effective People Management in Software Projects: A Comprehensive Catalog of Good Practices

Burkard,

Fontoura

2024

Int. J. Soft. Eng. Knowl. Eng.

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Software project success depends on effective people management; however, managers often rely on intuition rather than evidence-based practice. To bridge this gap, we compiled a catalog of good practices to assist managers in implementing people management practices, reducing resistance, and simultaneously collecting indicators that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of practices. We compiled the practices outlined in the literature from 63 selected studies conducted from 2016 to 2023. These studies were then categorized into 9 problem domains and 16 associated practices. Subsequently, through a survey, these practices were validated by 31 professionals, enabling classification based on overall relevance and problem-resolution efficacy. The results underscore the importance of interpersonal skills (soft skills) over technical abilities (hard skills) and highlight the significance of continuous feedback, open communication, and transparent management practices. This catalog is a valuable resource for managers to assess and customize practices for their specific project needs.

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Towards a Substantive Theory of Decision-Making in Software Project Management

Cited by 5 publications

References 29 publications

Grouping environmental factors influencing individual decision‐making behavior in software projects: A cluster analysis

Grouping environmental factors influencing individual decision‐making behavior in software projects: A cluster analysis

Temporal Discounting in Software Engineering: A Replication Study

Towards Effective People Management in Software Projects: A Comprehensive Catalog of Good Practices

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