Software development team flexibility antecedents

  • Authors:

  • Yuzhu Li;Kuo-Chung Chang;Houn-Gee Chen;James J. Jiang

  • Affiliations:

  • Decision & Information Sciences Department, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, USA;Department of Information Management, Yuan Ze University, 135 Yuan-Tung Road, Chung-Li, Taiwan;Department of Business Administration, College of Management, National Taiwan University, Taiwan;School of Accounting and Business Information Systems, ANU College of Business and Economics, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Systems and Software
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

The ability to respond to changes in the environment during the development of software is crucial in achieving a quality product. Putting the project team together to achieve the ability to react effectively requires an understanding of the nature of flexibility and capabilities that might promote the ability to respond to changing requirements and conditions. Based on dynamic capability theory, we build a model of software quality that is dependent on the flexibility of the team, with the flexibility of the team dependent on reactive and anticipatory capabilities of the team members. A questionnaire administered to 119 software development team members indicates strong linkages from reactive capabilities and mixed results for anticipatory capabilities to team flexibility. Both flexibility components of a comprehensive response and efficient response to changes are critical in achieving quality software. The items comprising the capabilities can serve to guide management in building flexible development teams.