Research On Customized Software Pricing Based On Game Theory

Along with the information technology development, the government, the enterprises and institutions has developed various software system by software principal, completes the internal affair to manage, promotion work, production efficiency and maintenance customer relations. Because these software majority are the customized software without quantification measurement, therefore, when the software users purchased the customized software, they will be faced with many problems in the software pricing aspect. As a result of the information dissymmetry, the user (request side or party A) are unable to inspect each candidate developer carefully, specially can not obtain the information of the core member engineers' level, engineer quantity, and the previous software engineering quality and so on. The users unable to determine the price was whether reasonable. When the software development is in progress, based on factor of considerations of cost, the develop company usually does not put the job location in the user's scene, the request side is unable to monitor in the process of software development, and how much resources they spent. These behaviors cause of delay of the development, and the low quality phenomenon. This is the "moral hazard" with which the software user is faced.Now the pricing of domestic customized software development (non-general commercial software) frequently takes man-date (an engineer to work one day is taken as 1 man-date) as for pricing unit. Some software development needs the more amount of man-date, the price is higher, but at present nobody can certificate that more development man-date may take more value, the quality will become better. Otherwise, development less man-date maybe more efficiency, applying automation tools is possibly getting higher value, the quality is possibly higher. Under this kind of pricing pattern, software engineers will intentionally delay the progress of software development. These behaviors can generate reverse of deviation of the software price and its value.This dissertation analyzes the problem of software pricing and negotiation process of the biding and the perfective maintenance based on the game theory method. It also analyzes and researches on the software pricing negotiations process using game theory of incomplete information static game and the information economics, in order to discover Pareto most superior contract of software pricing.The first chapter of this dissertation elaborated this thesis produces of background and the topic origin, which problems of this topic can be solved for the customized software request enterprise and the software development enterprise. The second chapter from existing software pricing method obtaining, discuss the quotation strategy and method in the software development enterprise's aspect which the software enterprise possibly adopts, finally analyzes the problem of these pricing methods.The third chapter introduces the game theory basic concept at present, as well as this topic uses the game theory correlation theories, and elaborates incentive theory. The fourth chapter has emphatically analyzed game process of the software purchase process, dissected the participations' strategy and the analysis method, and analyzed the pricing game of development of enhancement demand to the software enterprise in hypothesis of complete information. The fifth chapter mainly analyzes condition of incomplete information, how does the party A design the incentive plan to restrain the party B from development delay, "being loaf, and also "the moral hazard". In view of customized software demand bargaining back and forth between both sides, this chapter analyzes that the party B in fact obtains "the information rent". Finally summarizes the request side and the software enterprise should adopt the correct attitude to complete a software engineering.