Addressing a critical success factor for software projects: A multi-round Delphi study of TSP

Abstract

A five-round Delphi study was conducted to determine the degree to which the Team Software Process (TSP) can address the identified critical success factors for software projects. Three high-reputation and high-calibre experts participated in this study. Our results found agreement among the experts that the TSP provided the ‘Best Practises’ for addressing 14 critical success factors. The experts also agreed that the TSP provided a ‘Very Good’ framework for addressing 4 critical success factors. Our findings further suggested that 6 critical success factors were addressed by the TSP at a ‘Good’ level; only 1 critical success factor was addressed to a limited degree and none of the critical success factors were addressed at the ‘Fair’ level. The only critical success factor not addressed by the TSP was the ‘good performance by vendors/contractors/consultants’ factor. From an expert’s perspective, the TSP provides an operational framework that addresses 21 critical success factors software projects. We believe that each framework or method on its own cannot address all the identified critical success factors. However, by combining a software process improvement and project management framework or other excellent software development process models, all of the critical success factors can be better addressed. Key words: Team Software Process (TSP), critical success factors, Delphi study, software process improvement, software development, project management.