Exploring the relations between net benefits of IT projects and CIOs' perception of quality of software development disciplines

TL;DR

This paper evaluates how improving software development disciplines based on Kano's model can enhance the net benefits of IT projects, highlighting the importance of managing quality attributes in different disciplines.

Contribution

It introduces an empirical evaluation approach linking discipline quality improvements to IT project benefits using Kano's model and data from Slovenian enterprises.

Findings

Application of development methodologies correlates with project benefits.

Must-be quality disciplines are sensitive to changes and can cause dissatisfaction.

Attractive quality improvements increase satisfaction with minimal disruption.

Abstract

Software development enterprises are under consistent pressure to improve their management techniques and development processes. These are comprised of several disciplines like requirements acquisition, design, coding, testing, etc. that must be continuously improved and individually tailored to suit specific software development project. This paper presents an evaluation approach that enables the enterprises to increase development process net benefits by improving disciplines' quality and increasing developers' satisfaction. Our approach builds on Kano's model of quality. Based on an empirical study of top 1000 enterprises from Slovenia we find that application of software development methodologies in individual development disciplines significantly relates to net benefits of IT projects. The results show that different types of Kano quality are present in individual disciplines. Enterprises should be cautious when altering must-be quality disciplines like testing or deployment as they can significantly disrupt the established routines, cause great dissatisfaction between developers and significantly reduce benefits. On the other hand, changing the attractive quality disciplines like requirements acquisition can notably increase developers' satisfaction and benefits but is less likely to disrupt the established routines.