The effect of autonomous team role selection in flexible projects

Abstract

Today, most software projects are flexible, such as agile, extreme, or hybrid. In addition, this approach is increasingly being adopted for other types of projects. Most software project scheduling problems (SPSPs), more broadly, project scheduling problems (PSPs) and resource allocation methods, assume a fixed project structure. If we use these traditional methods, we cannot model and therefore understand why certain flexible, e.g., agile, policies are essential and how they help project management. This research shows how a matrix-based project planning approach can model team roles and synergies between employees. Extending the synergy-based software project scheduling problem, this study shows the effects of autonomous team role selection, highlighted in agile projects. The proposed model can manage (1) flexible projects, (2) synergies between employees, and (3) the difference between hard skills and soft skills. The proposed method is evaluated in a real-life case study. The proposed method is compared with existing, nonsynergy-based project scheduling methods. We found that positive synergy between employees can reduce the makespan of the project, and the best solution is given in autonomous team role selection.