Institutionalization of Software Product Line: An Empirical Investigation of Key Organizational Factors

TL;DR

This paper empirically investigates how organizational factors influence the successful institutionalization and performance of software product line practices within organizations, highlighting the importance of organizational fit and employee participation.

Contribution

It is the first empirical study to demonstrate the relationships between organizational factors and software product line performance.

Findings

Organizational factors significantly impact software product line success.

Employee participation correlates with better institutionalization.

Organizational behavior influences software product line performance.

Abstract

A good fit between the person and the organization is essential in a better organizational performance. This is even more crucial in case of institutionalization of a software product line practice within an organization. Employees participation, organizational behavior and management contemplation play a vital role in successfully institutionalizing software product lines in a firm. Organizational dimension has been weighted as one of the critical dimensions in software product line theory and practice. A comprehensive empirical investigation to study the impact of some organizational factors on the performance of software product line practice is presented in this work. This is the first study to empirically investigate and demonstrate the relationships between some of the key organizational factors and software product line performance of an organization. The results of this investigation provide empirical evidence and further support the theoretical foundations that in order to institutionalize software product lines within an organization, organizational factors play an important role.