Abstract
Research suggests the relationship between time pressure and software quality to be more complex than presumed. While software developers can adjust their output to improve observed performance at the expense of software quality, the latter has been found to increase with time pressure in case of work-pace dependent incentives. An untested, but widely disseminated game-theoretical model seeks to resolve this contradiction and hypothesizes that high rates of time pressure avoid so-called ‘shortcuts’, which occur in the form of imperfections induced by developers to meet unrealistically tight deadlines. We conduct two laboratory experiments to empirically test this model for the first time. Our results corroborate the model with regard to its suggestion that shortcuts can be reduced if developers perceive unrealistic deadlines as ever-present. However, we also show that the actual critical probability of unrealistic deadlines–the point at which shortcut taking is drastically reduced–is above the theoretical one. Although final conclusions on the impact of time pressure on software quality remain to be drawn, our results suggest that–considering the contingencies of our study–time pressure helps in striving for quality in software projects.
Highlights
Time pressure that results from too optimistic project schedules likely impairs software quality in software development [1], and time pressure even is deemed “the single greatest enemy of software engineering” [2]
We show that a higher probability of time pressure leads to less shortcut tasking, and presumably higher software quality
We indicate that a critical probability exists for assigning unrealistic deadlines to software developers
Summary
Time pressure that results from too optimistic project schedules likely impairs software quality in software development [1], and time pressure even is deemed “the single greatest enemy of software engineering” [2]. The findings of empirical research [e.g., 3–5] on the impact of time pressure (i.e., the perceived tightness of deadlines) are inconclusive. Studies find both a negative and a positive impact of time pressure on work performance [6]. Research has identified an inverted U-shape relationship between time pressure and performance [6, 7], proposing this relation to depend on the level of time pressure.
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