Authors:
Michel S. Soares
1
and
Joseph Barjis
2
Affiliations:
1
Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil
;
2
Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Keyword(s):
Software Development, Characteristics of Software Projects, Software Quality, Project Management.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Applications
;
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Information Systems Analysis and Specification
;
Operational Research
;
Organisational Learning
;
Project Management
;
Software Engineering
Abstract:
Software development is a complex engineering activity that faces many challenges. In the last three decades, software projects frequently ran over time, cost over budget, and delivered less functionalities than promised. These challenges are dominantly caused by technical and management failures. One critical challenge is that project characteristics, such as the technical and management environment, are not well-known in advance. The preposition of this paper is that knowing the characteristics of a software project will have a positive effect on three indicators that are most important for stakeholders: costs, duration, and functionalities. This preposition is discussed and validated in relation to three sources: review of the literature, analysis of lessons-learned documents of completed software projects in industry, and interviews with practitioners. This research resulted in a list of characteristics (non-exhaustive) that should be taken into account during the initial phases
of a software project development, which should increase likelihood of success.
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