A Contingency Approach to Software Project Coordination

• Authors: Hayward P. Andres;Robert W. Zmud
• Venue: Journal of Management Information Systems
• Year: 2002

Before software project managers can enhance productivity andsatisfaction of the software project team member, the effect oftask characteristics, goal orientations, and coordinationstrategies on design and coding-task outcomes must be understood. Aresearch model, which suggests that task interdependence, goalconflict, and coordination strategies significantly affectproductivity and satisfaction associated with software design andcoding activities, is presented. Issues such as contingency/designmisfit, conflicting contingencies, and the extent of deviation totheoretically prescribed coordination mechanisms applied tocontingencies are used to make predictions on productivity andprocess satisfaction. A 2x2x2 factorial experiment was utilized.Overall, projects characterized by low task interdependenceexhibited greater productivity than projects with high taskinterdependence. Also, in general, organic coordination was moreproductive than mechanistic coordination. There was also asignificant interaction between task interdependence andcoordination strategy. Low goal conflict and organic coordinationeach lead to greater process satisfaction. Productivity results forthe goal conflict manipulation was opposite to the hypothesizeddirection. Unconflicted contingencies addressed with consistentcoordination and partially conflicted contingencies, regardless ofthe coordination used, exhibited significant gains in productivity.In comparison, unconflicted contingencies with inconsistentcoordination and conflicted contingencies, regardless of thecoordination applied, resulted in lower productivity. This suggeststhat there are instances where multiple contingencies, whichwarrant the use of different coordination strategies, can beadequately addressed with a specific coordination strategy.