| Since its inception, the software industry has been in crisis. Historically, software systems development has been approached from the technical designer's perspective. Failure to consider the organizational and people issues in the process of designing software systems has often resulted in systems that are probably technically proficient but still fail to meet the business need of the organization or that cost millions of dollars over budget. This study analyzes software systems development, a technical process, from an organizational or human factors perspective. The Software Development Project Model, an assessment tool developed for this study by the author, provides a framework by which to evaluate the software development process in terms of organization and people. Focusing on three successful software systems development projects, this study enumerates those factors or activities deemed by project participants to influence the successful outcome of software development projects. The results of this research are significant for both academicians and organizational practitioners. They provide a new theoretical basis for understanding a technical process from an organizational perspective and move us closer to a definitive definition for human factors in the software development process. Human factors encompass the intersection of the academic disciplines of systems, organizational, and sociotechnical theories. The term human factors can be narrowly defined as the application of theories and methods from these disciplines to the field of software systems development. Study findings suggest that process and people, rather than technology, play the pivotal role in the successful outcome of software development projects. The practical implication of this dissertation study is that practitioners may enhance an organization's ability to orchestrate successful software development systems by shifting their focus from the technology itself to the human factors within the development process. In essence, the Software Development Project Model provides the frame of reference for creating a new human factors paradigm for the software systems development industry. |
