Structural performance as a success factor in software development projects – Estonian experience
Date
2012-05-11
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Abstract
Tarkvaraarenduse projekt on sama vana mõiste kui tarkvaraarendus ise. Pikale ajaloole vaatamata on tarkvaraprojektide edukuse protsent jätkuvalt madal. Sellise olukorra üheks põhjuseks on asjaolu, et tarkvaraprojekti edukus on erineva tähendusega projekti eri osapoolte jaoks. Enamasti on tarkvara arendusprojektides sellisteks erinevateks osapoolteks arendusmeeskond kui tarkvara looja, ettevõtte juhtkond ja loomulikult loodava tarkvara kasutaja. Doktoritöös on kirjeldatud struktuurne tulemuslikkus on meetod, mis võimaldab analüüsida eelpool nimetatud erinevate osapoolte, sageli vastuolulisi huvisid. Töö eesmärk on identifitseerida tarkvaraprojekti eriomadused, mis on aluseks projektimeeskonna struktuursele tulemuslikkusele ning kirjeldada ja üldistada struktuurse tulemuslikkuse mudelid Eesti projektimeeskondade näitel. Tulemusena on valminud struktuurse tulemuslikkuse kui õppiva organisatsiooni keskkonna kirjeldus tarkvara projektimeeskonna jaoks. Seda keskkonda kirjeldab õppiva organisatsiooni nii kolme- kui ka viiefaktoriline mudel. Juhtimisülesandena pole sageli võimalik otseselt protsessi tulemuslikkust parandada. Seda on võimalik teha vaid struktuurse tulemuslikkuse suurendamise ehk siis projekti keskkonna parandamise kaudu. Samas kulutab struktuurse tulemuslikkuse suurendamine projekti jaoks eraldatud ressursse, seega jääb projekti otsese edenemise jaoks neid vähem. Projekti õnnestumise tõenäosust suurendab projekti struktuurse tulemuslikkuse parandamine vaid sel juhul, kui selle läbi saadav aja kokkuhoid on suurem kui struktuurse tulemuslikkuse parandamiseks kulunud aeg.
Although the history of software development projects is long, the failure of projects remains a concern. One of the reasons for this situation is that the success of a software development project is defined by different stakeholders in different ways. A software development project usually has three main groups of stakeholders – the management of the development company, the project customer as the software user and the project team as the creator of the software. The current research focuses on structural performance as a method to achieve consensus between software project stakeholders. Structural performance incorporates elements of agile software development methodology including organizational structure, standards and other methodological choices established in the project. Such a set of different policies is generalized as an instrument of project management to improve process performance, and therefore, to complete software development projects successfully. An analysis of structural and process performance among Estonian software development teams is carried out. As a result of the survey, OL characteristics for software companies were established in accordance with Senge’s five-factor and three-factor models previously observed in Estonian businesses. The direct improvement of the development process as a management task is sometimes difficult, but increasing the structural performance as the development environment is usually more straightforward. On the other hand, the probability of the success of the software development process by improving structural performance is increased only if the effort exerted to increase the structural performance does not increase the overall time it takes to perform the project.
Although the history of software development projects is long, the failure of projects remains a concern. One of the reasons for this situation is that the success of a software development project is defined by different stakeholders in different ways. A software development project usually has three main groups of stakeholders – the management of the development company, the project customer as the software user and the project team as the creator of the software. The current research focuses on structural performance as a method to achieve consensus between software project stakeholders. Structural performance incorporates elements of agile software development methodology including organizational structure, standards and other methodological choices established in the project. Such a set of different policies is generalized as an instrument of project management to improve process performance, and therefore, to complete software development projects successfully. An analysis of structural and process performance among Estonian software development teams is carried out. As a result of the survey, OL characteristics for software companies were established in accordance with Senge’s five-factor and three-factor models previously observed in Estonian businesses. The direct improvement of the development process as a management task is sometimes difficult, but increasing the structural performance as the development environment is usually more straightforward. On the other hand, the probability of the success of the software development process by improving structural performance is increased only if the effort exerted to increase the structural performance does not increase the overall time it takes to perform the project.
Description
Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.
Keywords
tarkvaraarendus, projektihaldus, õppiv organisatsioon, tulemuslikkus, software development, project management, results of action, learning organisation