Dynamics of Schedule Pressure in Software Projects

摘要

This paper studies the dynamics of schedule pressure in software projects. It constructs asystem dynamics model of the software development process, which includes thefollowing modules. Flow of Work, Work Being Done, Inspection, Fault Detection andRework, and Supplementary Variables. It includes the module ‘Effect of SchedulePressure’ and integrates it with the rest of the model. The model presents the results oftwo sets of schedule-related policies of a system dynamics model. The first set of policiesthat pertain to the base model does not consider the effect of schedule pressure on thestaff productivity and errorproneness while the second set of policies pertaining to therevised model does. This study finds that effect of schedule pressure on software projectis non-linear and dynamics of schedule pressure is intricately related to decision makingprocess of the project manager, thus, making software projects management complex andcounterintuitive.