Development Team Effectiveness Research Articles

Understanding the Relationships Between Requirements Uncertainty and Nature of Conflicts: A Study of Software Development Team Effectiveness

Requirements uncertainty and conflict are the two pervasive phenomena that are currently receiving more attention in the development of information system (IS) projects. The existing literature based on requirements engineering indicates that, as a result of frequent interactions between users and IS practitioners, requirements uncertainty can negatively affect team performance. However, the nature of conflicts and requirements uncertainty have limited exploratory power with regard to software team effectiveness. The main objective of this work is to obtain additional insight into this phenomena by examining the relationships between requirements uncertainty (which comprises both requirements instability and variability) and conflict (i.e. task and relationship conflict). Furthermore, the impact of task and relationship conflict on team effectiveness has also been investigated separately. In order to address these relationships, a theoretical research model was developed and validated through an empirical study based on an online questionnaire survey. We gathered 71 complete responses, mostly from experts within the Indian software industry. The findings of this study indicate that there is a strong positive relationship between requirements instability and variability and relationship conflict; however, task conflict task conflict was not found to have a significant relationship with these dimensions. Additionally, we have observed a strong stronger negative effect of relationship conflict on team effectiveness than that of task conflict during the requirements uncertainty.

Cross Comparative Analysis on the Models of Transformational Leadership and Pseudo - Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership has been the center of interest for organizational behavior theorists and management experts due to this leadership style's significance and appeal with reference to organizational team performance, effectiveness as well as innovativeness. In addition, new product development is considered the core operation of each and every industrial concern. The success of new product development related operations is getting more challenging in today's' turbulent economic conditions. Hence, the current study is an attempt to explore the interconnection between transformational leadership and new product development team's effectiveness to support organizational innovation. The empirical study was conducted based on the implementation of especially devised and validated quantitative and qualitative. This study sample represented the new product development team's working at three different global locations of an energy sector company. The data obtained through the mixed mode of survey tools was analyzed statistically and qualitatively by implementing statistical methods. The research outcomes revealed that the dimensions of management initiative (innovation variable), collaboration (NPD team effectiveness variable), communication (NPD team effectiveness variable), affiliation with leader (transformational leadership variable) have positive association among each other while product innovation (innovation variable), communication (NPD team effectiveness variable) and leader's competence to empower its team (transformational leadership variable) have shown negative internal association.

Are team personality and climate related to satisfaction and software quality? Aggregating results from a twice replicated experiment

ContextResearch into software engineering teams focuses on human and social team factors. Social psychology deals with the study of team formation and has found that personality factors and group processes such as team climate are related to team effectiveness. However, there are only a handful of empirical studies dealing with personality and team climate and their relationship to software development team effectiveness. ObjectiveWe present aggregate results of a twice replicated quasi-experiment that evaluates the relationships between personality, team climate, product quality and satisfaction in software development teams. MethodOur experimental study measures the personalities of team members based on the Big Five personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism) and team climate factors (participative safety, support for innovation, team vision and task orientation) preferences and perceptions. We aggregate the results of the three studies through a meta-analysis of correlations. The study was conducted with students. ResultsThe aggregation of results from the baseline experiment and two replications corroborates the following findings. There is a positive relationship between all four climate factors and satisfaction in software development teams. Teams whose members score highest for the agreeableness personality factor have the highest satisfaction levels. The results unveil a significant positive correlation between the extraversion personality factor and software product quality. High participative safety and task orientation climate perceptions are significantly related to quality. ConclusionsFirst, more efficient software development teams can be formed heeding personality factors like agreeableness and extraversion. Second, the team climate generated in software development teams should be monitored for team member satisfaction. Finally, aspects like people feeling safe giving their opinions or encouraging team members to work hard at their job can have an impact on software quality. Software project managers can take advantage of these factors to promote developer satisfaction and improve the resulting product.

A replicated quasi-experimental study on the influence of personality and team climate in software development

This article reports a replication of a quasi-experimental study analyzing how personality factors and team climate influence software development team effectiveness, product quality and team member satisfaction. The replication was designed on the basis of the original quasi-experimental study, both of which were run in an academic setting. In the original study, data were collected from a sample of 35 three-member developer teams. All these teams used an adaptation of extreme programming (XP) to the academic environment to develop the same software system. In the replication, the data were collected from a sample of 34 three- or four-member developer teams working on the same software project. Student teams used a common object-oriented software development paradigm to solve the set problem and applied the Unified Process. In both studies all teams were formed at random, and their members were blind to the quasi-experimental conditions and hypotheses. The replication of this empirical study aims to verify the results of the original quasi-experiment. It examines, first, whether personality factors (neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, openness to experience and conscientiousness) are related to the quality of the developed software and team member satisfaction and, second, whether the preferences, perceptions and preferences-perceptions fit for the four team climate factors (participative safety, support for innovation, team vision and task orientation) are related to the quality of the developed software and team member satisfaction. The results of the replication corroborate some of the findings of the original study. On the one hand, the results revealed that there is a significant correlation between the extroversion personality factor and software quality, but no significant correlation between the extroversion personality factor and team satisfaction. Also, we found that the perception of team climate where participative safety is high is related to better quality software. We observed significant relationships between the perception of the four team climate factors and team member satisfaction. Additionally, the results showed a positive relationship between software quality and teams in which the real climate perception at the end of the project is better than preferences stated by team members at the outset of the project for the participative safety factor. Finally, we found that teams where the real climate is better than the stated preferences for the team orientation factor exhibit a direct and positive relationship to team member satisfaction.

Disseminating the functions of team coaching regarding research and development team effectiveness: Evidence from high-tech industries in Taiwan

The purpose of this research was to test the predictions of Team Coaching Theory (Hackman & Wageman, 2005) using 137 research and development teams in Taiwan. The results of this study partially supported Hackman and Wageman's theory. Results of the structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that team coaching functions had positive effects on the team performance processes of effort and skills and knowledge. In addition it was found that the team performance processes of effort and strategy had direct positive impacts on team effectiveness. Further SEM analyses indicated that effort and skills and knowledge both had direct impacts on strategy (which in turn impacted on team effectiveness).

Supplier integration into new product development: coordinating product, process and supply chain design

In many industries, firms are seeking to cut concept to customer development time, improve quality, reduce the cost of new products and facilitate the smooth launch of new products. Prior research has indicated that the integration of material suppliers into the new product development (NPD) cycle can provide substantial benefits towards achieving these goals. This involvement may range from simple consultation with suppliers on design ideas to making suppliers fully responsible for the design of components or systems they will supply. Moreover, suppliers may be involved at different stages of the new product development process. Early supplier involvement is a key coordinating process in supply chain design, product design and process design. Several important questions regarding supplier involvement in new product development remain unanswered. Specifically, we look at the issue of what managerial practices affect new product development team effectiveness when suppliers are to be involved. We also consider whether these factors differ depending on when the supplier is to be involved and what level of responsibility is to be given to the supplier. Finally, we examine whether supplier involvement in new product development can produce significant improvements in financial returns and/or product design performance. We test these proposed relationships using survey data collected from a group of global organizations and find support for the relationships based on the results of a multiple regression analysis.

Test of a model of organizational contributors to product development team effectiveness

Abstract This study tests a model of product development team effectiveness which was developed by Susman and Dean [Susman, G.I., Dean, J.W., 1992. Development of a model for predicting design for manufacturability effectiveness. In: Susman, G.I. (Ed.), Integrating Design and Manufacturing for Competitive Advantage. Oxford Univ. Press, New York, pp. 207–227.]. The model addresses two interrelated managerial issues. One concerns the use of integrative mechanisms to counterbalance the potentially negative effects of function-based differentiation, directly or indirectly through group process. The other concerns group process vs. codification/computerization as alternative means to process information as risk increases. This study addresses the first issue by testing the effect of a subset of integrative mechanisms on project outcomes, i.e., project focus, and the role of group process as partial mediator of this relationship. The second issue is addressed by testing for risk as positive moderator of the relationship between group process and project outcomes and as negative moderator of the relationship between codification/computerization and project outcomes. The results suggest that project focus is directly related to project outcomes, but group process does not mediate this relationship. Codification/computerization is not related to project outcomes. Risk does not positively moderate the group process–project outcomes relationship, but does negatively moderate the codification/computerization–project outcomes relationship.

A bibliographical introduction and review of some factors influencing the effectiveness of research and development teams: The agricultural research context

The effectiveness of research and development teams in organizations is viewed in a framework comprising three sets of factors: (1) characteristics related to the research unit; (2) characteristics related to the task; and (3) the dynamics of the team itself. Research unit-related characteristics include such aspects as the distribution of skills across scientists, the relative size of a facility, and the group composition over time. Task-related characteristics include structural aspects, such as patterns of communication and boundary spanning linkages, research facility location and scope of program and project mission. The specific aspects of the team itself which are addressed are the interpersonal psychological needs of the individuals constituting the group and their openness-to-innovativeness orientations. Some implications are drawn for improving the process of research and development by focusing on the interaction and level of compatibility of group or team members. While the context is agricultural research, the framework and literature review are utilized to address the generic problem of research and development team effectiveness.