Jiunn-Yih Jiang

Software development team flexibility antecedents

The ability to respond to changes in the environment during the development of software is crucial in achieving a quality product. Putting the project team together to achieve the ability to react effectively requires an understanding of the nature of flexibility and capabilities that might promote the ability to respond to changing requirements and conditions. Based on dynamic capability theory, we build a model of software quality that is dependent on the flexibility of the team, with the flexibility of the team dependent on reactive and anticipatory capabilities of the team members. A questionnaire administered to 119 software development team members indicates strong linkages from reactive capabilities and mixed results for anticipatory capabilities to team flexibility. Both flexibility components of a comprehensive response and efficient response to changes are critical in achieving quality software. The items comprising the capabilities can serve to guide management in building flexible development teams.

User commitment and collaboration: Motivational antecedents and project performance

Context: Prior research into the success of information system development projects views user commitment and collaboration as unrelated concepts in models that take either a perspective of mediators or one of processes. This perspective is limiting in that mediators and processes may interact during the course of an information system development project. Objective: In this work, we model both mediators and processes as important to project outcomes and propose that processes will also be impacted by affective mediators, specifically the behavioral mediator of user commitment and the project process of collaboration. The model also allows behavioral antecedents to be considered in relation to the mediation variable, specifically the ability of the users and the extrinsic motivators perceived by the users. Method: A questionnaire containing constructs of collaboration processes, user commitment, abilities, and extrinsic motivation are completed by users in a development project and project success is measured by the IS staff for a matching independent variable. 128 matching pairs were collected and the model analyzed using partial least squares regression. Results: Results indicate that the affective mediator can be influenced by the tested antecedents showing that IS project managers should be able to choose users with essential abilities and also establish sufficient rewards to employees, even those who may not be direct subordinates. Similarly, collaboration is still important to the success of a project, indicating that procedures to encourage collaboration be installed from the beginning of the project. However, commitment alone is sufficient to predict collaboration, meaning that motivation outside the processes in place may not be necessary to encourage collaboration between the users and IS staff. Conclusion: IS researchers should consider both process mediators and affective states in future work when considering the link between antecedent inputs of software projects to the success of outputs. IS managers should promote commitment among users beyond placing collaboration mechanisms in place. This might require project managers have more decision authority in the rewards provided to user participants.

Coproduction in successful software development projects

Context: Coproduction of new products has been deemed successful in organizational partnerships by adding to the quality and scope of the product. Techniques that involve users during the development of software tend to mimic this environment, but differ in the type of product and internal client roles. The question is thus, whether coproduction improves the outcomes of a software development project as it has in other disciplines. Objective: This paper evaluates how the coproduction relationship between software developers and users improves the outcomes of a development project. Coproduction is believed to improve outcomes when available knowledge is accessible and applicable to the objective of the development project. Should the relationships hold, coproduction approaches to development can be approached with confidence and improvements made by attention to the development and deployment of expertise. Method: A quantitative questionnaire related to the coproduction environment was developed for four variables to include coproduction, applying expertise, locating expertise, and project success. 128 users from development teams responded to the survey and represent a variety of industries, individual characteristics, and project sizes. Results: Expertise is crucial to the success of a software development project and coproduction improves the ability to access and apply the needed expertise. In addition, coproduction directly improves outcomes. Conclusion: Coproduction can be an effective approach to the development of systems in terms of meeting project goals. Additionally, the assembly of expertise on the team is an important contributor to successful outcomes that may be enhanced through effective selection of team members. The ability to locate the available expertise is crucial, indicating the value of team building functions to promote awareness of expertise location.

Career anchors and disturbances in job turnover decisions - A case study of IT professionals in Taiwan

Previous models of turnover by IT professionals consider job satisfaction as a key indicator. One common model considers whether an organization matches the internal anchors of IT employees to provisions in the work place. This pattern is often broken by other considerations that disturb the relationship between job satisfaction and intent to seek employment elsewhere. Such disturbances present a problem in planning and are not globally considered in research models. A qualitative study of ten cases yields new insight into the disturbances that break the pattern leading to a more general model of turnover.

Consequences of psychological contract violations for IS personnel

Jobs in information systems are moving more toward short term arrangements with fewer ties to an organization. These arrangements lead to understandings among information system (IS) employees that are transactional in nature. Additionally, organizations continue to outsource IS functions, further violating the perceived social ties that IS employees experienced in the past. Both of these trends are a cause for concern. We develop a single model to explore previously disjoint research on organizational ties based on the type of psychological contract held between an IS employee and the violation of that psychological contract. An empirical study of the model indicates there is less commitment to the organization when ties are perceived to be transactional and a greater erosion of commitment when broken ties are based on relationships instead of tangible gain. In turn, the loss of commitment leads to an increase in an intention to leave the organization.