IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/orisre/v15y2004i1p3-21.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Fault Threshold Policy to Manage Software Development Projects

Author

Listed:
  • I. Robert Chiang

    (School of Business, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06084)

  • Vijay S. Mookerjee

    (School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas 75083)

Abstract

This paper presents a project management policy in which the appearance of software faults during system construction is used to determine the timing of system integration activities (e.g., team meetings, analyzing modules for interface inconsistencies, system fault correction, and so on). System integration is performed only if a threshold fault count has been exceeded; otherwise, module development is allowed to continue. We derive an expression for calculating fault thresholds and analyze the policy to reveal the presence of three operating regions: (1) a region in which development should continue with no system integration, (2) a region in which system integration occurs if a threshold fault count has been exceeded, and (3) a region in which system integration should always take place. Analytical and numerical results demonstrate how the fault thresholds change with system complexity, team skill, development environment, and project schedule. We also show how learning that occurs during each round of system integration leads to less frequent integration in the future, and lower total construction effort. Simulation experiments reveal that the fault threshold policy can be applied even if several homogeneity assumptions in the model are relaxed, allowing for differences in the propensity among modules to accumulate faults and the effort needed to correct these faults. Finally, the fault threshold policy outperforms a fixed-release policy in which system integration occurs whenever a fixed number of modules has been released.

Suggested Citation

  • I. Robert Chiang & Vijay S. Mookerjee, 2004. "A Fault Threshold Policy to Manage Software Development Projects," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 15(1), pages 3-21, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:15:y:2004:i:1:p:3-21
    DOI: 10.1287/isre.1040.0012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/isre.1040.0012
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/isre.1040.0012?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sarma Nidumolu, 1995. "The Effect of Coordination and Uncertainty on Software Project Performance: Residual Performance Risk as an Intervening Variable," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 6(3), pages 191-219, September.
    2. Murlidhar V. Koushik & Vijay S. Mookerjee, 1995. "Modeling Coordination in Software Construction: An Analytical Approach," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 6(3), pages 220-254, September.
    3. Rajiv D. Banker & Gordon B. Davis & Sandra A. Slaughter, 1998. "Software Development Practices, Software Complexity, and Software Maintenance Performance: A Field Study," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(4), pages 433-450, April.
    4. Cheryl Gaimon, 1997. "Planning Information Technology--Knowledge Worker Systems," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(9), pages 1308-1328, September.
    5. Samer Faraj & Lee Sproull, 2000. "Coordinating Expertise in Software Development Teams," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(12), pages 1554-1568, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jing Wang & Panagiotis G. Ipeirotis & Foster Provost, 2017. "Cost-Effective Quality Assurance in Crowd Labeling," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(1), pages 137-158, March.
    2. Yonghua Ji & Vijay S. Mookerjee & Suresh P. Sethi, 2005. "Optimal Software Development: A Control Theoretic Approach," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 16(3), pages 292-306, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rajiv D. Banker & Robert J. Kauffman, 2004. "50th Anniversary Article: The Evolution of Research on Information Systems: A Fiftieth-Year Survey of the Literature in Management Science," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(3), pages 281-298, March.
    2. Bresciani, Stefano & Ferraris, Alberto & Del Giudice, Manlio, 2018. "The management of organizational ambidexterity through alliances in a new context of analysis: Internet of Things (IoT) smart city projects," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 331-338.
    3. Thomas Kude & Sunil Mithas & Christoph T. Schmidt & Armin Heinzl, 2019. "How Pair Programming Influences Team Performance: The Role of Backup Behavior, Shared Mental Models, and Task Novelty," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(4), pages 1145-1163, December.
    4. Wai Fong Boh & Sandra A. Slaughter & J. Alberto Espinosa, 2007. "Learning from Experience in Software Development: A Multilevel Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(8), pages 1315-1331, August.
    5. Magni, Massimo & Proserpio, Luigi & Hoegl, Martin & Provera, Bernardino, 2009. "The role of team behavioral integration and cohesion in shaping individual improvisation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 1044-1053, July.
    6. Diane E. Strode, 2016. "A dependency taxonomy for agile software development projects," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 23-46, February.
    7. Jaime B. Windeler & Likoebe Maruping & Viswanath Venkatesh, 2017. "Technical Systems Development Risk Factors: The Role of Empowering Leadership in Lowering Developers’ Stress," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 775-796, December.
    8. Likoebe M. Maruping & Viswanath Venkatesh & Ritu Agarwal, 2009. "A Control Theory Perspective on Agile Methodology Use and Changing User Requirements," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 20(3), pages 377-399, September.
    9. Amrit Tiwana, 2009. "Governance-Knowledge Fit in Systems Development Projects," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 20(2), pages 180-197, June.
    10. D. J. Wu & Min Ding & Lorin M. Hitt, 2013. "IT Implementation Contract Design: Analytical and Experimental Investigation of IT Value, Learning, and Contract Structure," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 787-801, September.
    11. Yuzhu Li & Morgan Shepherd & Julie Yu-Chih Liu & Gary Klein, 2017. "Enhancing development team flexibility in IS projects," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 83-96, March.
    12. Nishtha Langer & Sandra A. Slaughter & Tridas Mukhopadhyay, 2014. "Project Managers' Practical Intelligence and Project Performance in Software Offshore Outsourcing: A Field Study," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 25(2), pages 364-384, June.
    13. J. Alberto Espinosa & Sandra A. Slaughter & Robert E. Kraut & James D. Herbsleb, 2007. "Familiarity, Complexity, and Team Performance in Geographically Distributed Software Development," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(4), pages 613-630, August.
    14. Hung, Yu Wen & Hsu, Shih-Chieh & Su, Zhi-Yuan & Huang, Hsieh-Hong, 2014. "Countering user risk in information system development projects," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 533-545.
    15. Manning, Stephan, 2017. "The rise of project network organizations: Building core teams and flexible partner pools for interorganizational projects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(8), pages 1399-1415.
    16. Arora, Ashish & Forman, Chris & Nandkumar, Anand & Telang, Rahul, 2010. "Competition and patching of security vulnerabilities: An empirical analysis," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 164-177, May.
    17. Bent Flyvbjerg & Alexander Budzier & Jong Seok Lee & Mark Keil & Daniel Lunn & Dirk W. Bester, 2022. "The Empirical Reality of IT Project Cost Overruns: Discovering A Power-Law Distribution," Papers 2210.01573, arXiv.org.
    18. Sundarraj, R. P., 2002. "An optimization approach to plan for reusable software components," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 128-137, October.
    19. Henrik Bresman, 2010. "External Learning Activities and Team Performance: A Multimethod Field Study," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(1), pages 81-96, February.
    20. Bai, Yuntao & Lin, Li & Li, Peter Ping, 2016. "How to enable employee creativity in a team context: A cross-level mediating process of transformational leadership," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3240-3250.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:15:y:2004:i:1:p:3-21. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.