Team conflict dynamics & conflict management: derivation of a model for software organisations to enhance team performance and software quality

Abstract

Commercial Software Engineering is a team based activity and therefore success is hugely dependent on whether the team has succeeded in building a cooperative environment and how well the team members get along together. Over the past years, team conflict has increasingly been viewed as a major factor that can cause the failure of a software project. Conflict must be properly managed in the best interest of the project's stakeholders. This research uses team conflict dynamics model to analyse different conflict types and team conflict profiles to produce a framework that can improve project success in software development. An eight stage framework was devised and was tested. From the data gathered it was found that the framework was successful. This framework can be studied by individuals, taught or applied by a mediator and also another benefit is that individuals are encouraged to express themselves and integrate emotional intelligence.