Grouping environmental factors influencing individual decision‐making behavior in software projects: A cluster analysis

Abstract

AbstractAn individual's decision‐making behavior is heavily influenced by and adapted to external environmental factors. Given that software development is a human‐centered activity, individual decision‐making behavior may affect the software project quality. Although environmental factors affecting decision‐making behavior in software projects have been identified in prior literature, there is not yet an objective and a full taxonomy of these factors. Thus, it is not trivial to manage these complex and diverse factors. To address this deficiency, we first design a semantic similarity algorithm between words by utilizing the synonymy and hypernymy relationships in WordNet. Further, we propose a method to measure semantic similarity between phrases and apply it into k‐means clustering algorithm to group these factors. Subsequently, we obtain a taxonomy of the environmental factors affecting individual decision‐making behavior in software projects, which includes 11 broad categories, each containing 2 to 5 sub‐categories. The taxonomy presented herein is obtained by an objective method, and quite comprehensive, with appropriate references provided. The taxonomy holds significant value for researchers and practitioners; it can help them to better understand the major aspects of environmental factors, also to predict and guide the behavior of individuals during decision making towards a successful completion of software projects.