Abstract
What can we learn from historic data that is collected in three software companies that on a daily basis had to cope with highly complex project portfolios? In this paper we analyze a large dataset, containing 352 finalized software engineering projects, with the goal to discover what factors affect software project performance, and what actions can be taken to increase project performance when building a software project portfolio. The software projects were classified in four quadrants of a Cost/Duration matrix: analysis was performed on factors that were strongly related to two of those quadrants, Good Practices and Bad Practices. A ranking was performed on the factors based on statistical significance. The paper results in an inventory of 'what factors should be embraced when building a project portfolio?' (Success Factors), and 'what factors should be avoided when doing so?' (Failure Factors). The major contribution of this paper is that it analyzes characteristics of best performers and worst performers in the dataset of software projects, resulting in 7 Success Factors (a.o. steady heartbeat, a fixed, experienced team, agile (Scrum), and release-based), and 9 Failure Factors (a.o. once-only project, dependencies with other systems, technology driven, and rules- and regulations driven).
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | 36th International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE Companion 2014 - Proceedings |
Subtitle of host publication | Software Engineering In Practice Track (SEIP) |
Publisher | IEEE |
Pages | 64-73 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Volume | 31-May-2014 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781450327688 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 31 May 2014 |
Event | 36th International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE Companion 2014 - Hyderabad, India Duration: 31 May 2014 → 7 Jun 2014 |
Conference
Conference | 36th International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE Companion 2014 |
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Country/Territory | India |
City | Hyderabad |
Period | 31/05/14 → 7/06/14 |
Keywords
- Agile
- Bad practice
- Failure factor
- Good practice
- Learning cycle
- Productivity
- Quality
- Success factor
- Time-to-market
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Evidence-Based Software Portfolio Management (EBSPM) Research Repository
Huijgens, H. K. M. (Creator), TU Delft - 4TU.ResearchData, 20 Jul 2017
DOI: 10.4121/UUID:42FD1BE1-325F-47A4-BA39-31AF35CA7F75
Dataset/Software: Dataset