Impact of heterogeneity on software development teams

Abstract

Changes in Indian workforce and globalisation have resulted in an increase in heterogeneous information technology (IT) teams. Team heterogeneity has been shown to impact various team outcomes. This paper examines the impact of demographic, knowledge and underlying diversity in IT teams on various team outcomes. Data were collected from 62 software development (SD) teams and analysed using multiple regressions. The result suggests that more than other forms of heterogeneity, underlying heterogeneity in SD teams has been consistently a significant predictor of the various team outcomes and thus impacts the team effectiveness.