The influence of team relationships on software quality

Abstract

Implementing software development successfully in an organization is possibly one of the most challenging issues that the industry faces today. Project failures and the lack of software quality have become a major concern for researchers and practitioners. For many software development projects as well as for many quality assurance departments, teamwork is extremely important. Therefore, nearly all organizations pay attention to teamwork which is essential for smooth operation of a project. It is believed that teamwork is crucial for the success or failure of a project. In addition to the importance of teamwork, team issues affecting its' performance also needs attention. Among these team issues, people issues are scarce in the literature. The research outlined in this paper investigated the factors which influence teamwork. It identified the importance of trust and how trust influences IT project teams and the role of project managers and team leaders in improving trust within teams. It also includes individual behaviors that affect trust within a team. A study of six project managers from two Australian organizations was conducted to investigate the factors which influence teamwork to result in project success and software quality. The results showed that trust is a central element of the many factors and that without trust in the team; teamwork will be negatively affected resulting in project failure and poor quality.