An Empirical Study of the Effect of Knowledge Integration on Software Development Performance

Abstract

Although various software development coordination tools are widely used in practice, no field study has comprehensively assessed the robustness and nature of their impact on the software development process. This paper reports the results of a large-scale field study involving 209 projects in 209 international software development organizations in India, Russia, and Ireland for 209 different American customer organizations. The participating software development organizations were members of the three largest global consortia of software development organizations. The objective of the study was to assess the impact of six key types of development coordination tools on defect reduction, development rework reduction, and cost containment. The quantitative phase of the study was preceded by in-depth interviews in 19 software development organizations.

The results demonstrate that the influence of various development coordination tools varies depending on whether is project is routine, conceptually novel, involves novel development processes, or simultaneously involves both types of novelties. Collectively, they have important implications for choosing an optimal mix of coordination tools for different types of projects. Implications for practice are also discussed.

Keywords: Software development, empirical study, defect reduction, knowledge management, development tools, software process improvement, project management, coordination, outsourcing, project control & modeling