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The purpose of this paper is to gain insights about the applicability of Lean principles in software industry along with the Lean implementation issues.

Exploratory case studies have been carried out in five software companies. Data were collected by observation and semi-structured interviews with project managers. In this paper, case organizations are categorized as product vs project software development (SD) organization.

It is found that although Lean principles are being adopted in SD projects, application of all Lean principles is not visible. This research reveals that value and flow are more relevant in SD organizations, while value stream, pull and perfection are not conspicuous.

This paper would prove invaluable to lean practitioners and researchers to gain knowledge in lean SD. The paper puts forward the key issues that should be addressed for successful adoption of lean in SD. This study set out to determine the practitioners’ perception of the applicability of lean principles in SD projects. It provides a sound basis for further empirical research on adoption of lean principles in SD organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to study how the software outsourcing teams, namely, vendors, transfer effective knowledge to enhance team performance; it reports on a study of transactive memory system (TMS) theory and makes deep analyses and discussions about the influence of the cooperative behaviors of TMS on software outsourcing team’s performance under the framework of three behavioral characteristics dimensions – specialization, credibility and coordination.

This paper is an empirical study based on investigation interviews to 28 software outsourcing teams and data of questionnaire surveys on 124 software outsourcing teams; structural equation model is used to test the data we collected.

This paper finds that both credibility and coordination have a significantly positive impact on knowledge transfer and project success, whereas specialization has a significant negative impact on project success. The results of data analysis show that TMS is an effective coordination mechanism.

The conclusion of the study can help us understand the coordination mechanism of knowledge transfer in software outsourcing team and provide theoretical support and paradigm reference for vendors in China to accumulate knowledge and improve the success rate of projects in the context of software project development.

The paper aims to present a conceptual framework that helps in incorporating sustainability into software projects, highlights the importance of project sustainability and provides an extensive review of recent relevant contributions across various fields.

The authors carried out a systematic bibliographic search on relevant published materials to analyse links between the two disciplines (sustainability and software projects). Furthermore, content analysis was applied to the final selected publications to identify and classify relevant triple bottom line (TBL) aspects to develop the framework.

The inclusion of TBL-related aspects is the most efficient and effective method used to incorporate sustainability into projects. Most of the relevant contributions in the software literature have focussed on either project product or project process or on one or two dimensions of sustainability rather than the three dimensions of the TBL theory. This study contributes by proposing a conceptual framework that encompasses TBL-related aspects for incorporating sustainability into processes and products of software projects.

Validating the proposed framework empirically could be an interesting research issue. In addition, future works may focus on different types of industries, such as information systems, telecommunications and service sectors, which have seldom been studied in the literature.

Software companies – or other relevant organisations – may use the proposed framework as a measurement tool to evaluate the environmental and social impacts of their current products and project management practices. Consequently, these organisations may pay more attention to incorporating sustainability into their project management practices.

The proposed framework may contribute towards a more sustainable orientation by providing a unique combination of TBL-related aspects that gives academics and practitioners a better understanding of how software projects can be managed sustainably.

The research on people and project factors is found extensively in general but not specific to software engineering. Secondly, the existing research has not concentrated on the communication and time complexity of the teams on software economics. The purpose this paper is to develop a model to investigate and quantify the impact of time pressure (TP) on software economics through the communication influence of software team sizes (TS).

A research model and five hypotheses are developed based on the gaps in the literature. The data set from International Software Benchmarking Standards Group repository is used for testing the hypotheses.

Important findings include: smaller TS tends to exert less TP on average; TP is directly proportional to software economics, however; and TP does not affect the productivity required for the software.

The study has the following implications: Selection of an appropriate TS for project completion that ensures minimum pressure on team members; and maximize software outcomes in stress-free environment.

This work is useful for organizations carrying out software projects with teamwork. The project managers can benefit from the results while planning the team factors for achieving the project goals.

The results uphold not to exert pressure on the team as it will not only affect the duly completion of the project but also the well-being of employees.

The paper is the first one where the proposition of TP estimation is done using TS and communication complexity, and empirically evaluating the impact of TP on four major software economics are the major key contributions of this research work.

This study aims to empirically investigate the relationship between different global software development (GSD) challenges (management, process, social, technical and environmental challenges) and software project success. Further, the study examines the moderating role of total quality management (TQM) between the relationship of GSD challenges and success of software projects.

Using two field studies, the authors collected data form software developers working in globally distributed teams. In study 1 (n = 194), relationship of different dimensions of GSD challenges (management, process, social, technical and environmental challenges) and project success was examined. In study 2 (n = 138), moderating role of TQM was examined on the relationship of GSD challenges and project success.

The results of study 1 indicate that there is a negative relationship between all dimensions of GSD challenges and project success. Findings of study 2 confirmed that TQM practices moderate the negative relationship between GSD challenges and project success.

The findings of the study provide guidelines to the project managers of software industry to mitigate GSD challenges using TQM practices.

Study adds in the literature of TQM, GSD challenges and project success by (1) empirically investigating the relationship between different GSD challenges and software project success and (2) by examining the moderating role of TQM practices on relationship of GSD challenges and project success in global software development industry.

The purpose of this paper is to present a life cycle phase of a software development project which is substantial for the success of the project. This paper visualizes the project start-up phase from suppliers’ perspective.

The method is a theory building from case studies. The data were collected from three software supplier firms by conducting process modeling separately in each firm.

The study resulted in a model of a supplier’s software project start-up which includes start-up practices and involved roles. The results indicate that project start-up is an integral and structured phase of project life cycle, which influences the execution of a software development project, especially from the supplier’s perspective in the project business context.

The study focuses on the start-up phase of software development projects delivered to external customers. Therefore, developed project start-up model is applicable as such in software supplier firms.

The project start-up model presented in this paper indicates that project start-up is a complex and multi-dimensional activity in a supplier firm. This study suggests that if the project start-up phase is clearly defined, planned and followed in a supplier firm, it reduces confusion and miscommunication among the people involved in the project and helps to achieve the business goals of a project.

This study emphasizes that it is necessary to make a distinction between the perspectives of the customer and the supplier when studying projects in the project business context. The findings contribute the new knowledge for managing outsourced software development projects.

Existing models of critical success factors of software projects have less concentration on communication, team, project management and product related factors. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model of critical success factors (CSFs) for software development projects, categorize the success factors, finding the factors in each category and highlighting the product, team, project management and communication factors as important categories of success factors for software projects.

A conceptual model and seven categories of success factors comprising a total of 80 success factors for software development projects were identified based on the thorough literature review. These 80 factors are collected based on their importance to software projects and their repeated occurrence in the literature related to CSFs. Based on the occurrence of the success factor in the literature, each category comprising top five success factors are identified as critical success factors for software projects. Based on these seven categories of success factors a conceptual model was developed.

A total of 35 CSFs from seven CSF categories are identified from secondary research of the CSFs for software development projects. The identified CSFs include communication in project, top management support, clear project goal, reliability of output, project planning, teamwork, project team coordination, quality control, client acceptance, accuracy of output, reduce ambiguity, maximize stability, realistic expectations and user involvement. Project management, product, team and communication factors are identified as important categories of success factors for software projects.

Different categories of critical success factors such as product, project management, team and communication, which were not highlighted or categorized earlier in the literature are discussed in this current work.

This research is definitely useful for organizations working on software projects. The project managers working in the industry can benefit from the mentioned critical success factors and the categories of factors by concentration on them while planning and executing software projects.

The conceptual model, categorization of CSFs, identifying 35 CSFs for software projects and highlighting product, team and communication factors are major contributions of this research work.

The purpose of this study is to identify a typology of procurement contracts in the context of software development projects that allows firms to align design flexibility with design uncertainty at the project level. The theoretical lenses of contract theory and software engineering are used to explain why the five archetypes in the proposed typology provide gradually increasing levels of design flexibility and to develop hypotheses about the associations between design flexibility and a set of project cost dimensions.

The hypotheses are tested with objective contractual data from 270 software development contracts entered into by a leading international bank over a period of three years.

Data analysis confirms the existence of the proposed typology and shows that design flexibility is negatively associated with control and positively associated with coordination, trust, duration and price.

Although the findings are based on the contracting practices of a single, albeit sophisticated, organization, they shed light on the ability of firms to align flexibility with uncertainty at the onset of new projects by taking advantage of nuanced contractual mechanisms to produce a broader set of contractual archetypes.

This paper is the first in the outsourcing literature to analyze a nuanced contractual typology in software development projects through the perspectives of both contract theory and software engineering.

The main objective of the paper is to develop a risk management framework for software development projects from developers' perspective.

This study uses a combined qualitative and quantitative technique with the active involvement of stakeholders in order to identify, analyze and respond to risks. The entire methodology has been explained using a case study on software development project in a public sector organization in Barbados.

Analytical approach to managing risk in software development ensures effective delivery of projects to clients.

The proposed risk management framework has been applied to a single case.

Software development projects are characterized by technical complexity, market and financial uncertainties and competent manpower availability. Therefore, successful project accomplishment depends on addressing those issues throughout the project phases. Effective risk management ensures the success of projects.

There are several studies on managing risks in software development and information technology (IT) projects. Most of the studies identify and prioritize risks through empirical research in order to suggest mitigating measures. Although they are important to clients for future projects, these studies fail to provide any framework for risk management from software developers' perspective. Although a few studies introduced framework of risk management in software development, most of them are presented from clients' perspectives and very little effort has been made to integrate this with the software development cycle. As software developers absorb considerable amount of risks, an integrated framework for managing risks in software development from developers' perspective is needed.

The purpose of this paper is to review the content, contributions and subsequent developments of the seminal paper by Barry Boehm, “A spiral model of software development and enhancement” written in 1988. The relationships of this paper to software development, agile projects, real options and present practice are put into perspective.

Basically an essayist approach is taken. First, the contents of Boehm's paper are reviewed and then associated with subsequent developments.

Review of the paper as published represents a documentation of cutting‐edge software development as it existed at the time. Fundamentally it suggests the viability of a non‐linear, customer‐influenced, development approach.

This basic approach illustrated in the spiral model of course has found its way into complex project approaches and management.

This paper follows the lines of increasing attention to classics, which is the purpose of this special issue of the journal. In particular, attention is called to the transition of thought on projects and project management from supplier‐oriented, linear processes to customer/client‐influenced, non‐linear ones.