Software Project Management



Software Project Management

Introduction

A project manager is accountable for delivering project outputs. However, as a project is a complex endeavour, project managers can expect support from others in the organisation. Particularly, the active involvement of senior managers of the performing organisation can help project managers to successfully complete the project. Consistently, the project management literature has found that top management support positively contribute to project success (Besner and Hobbs, 2008; Lester, 1998; Whittaker, 1999; Zwikael and Globerson, 2004; Johnson et al., 2001; McManus, 2004). These studies show that top management support is considered to be among project management critical success factors (CSFs). This means that the more top management processes are practiced in organisations, the higher the level of project success is. However, with executive limited time and resources, it is also important to identify the most effective support processes for different project scenarios.

Discussion

A paper, published in the last issue of this journal (Zwikael, 2008), also supports the high importance of top management involvement in projects. Yet, this paper concludes with the following statement: “different top management support processes should be implemented in any industry and culture”. This statement is aligned with a project management belief that there is no “one size” for managing projects (Dvir et al., 2006). Another support for this approach is the different extent of use of various project management processes across different industries (Pennypacker and Grant, 2003; Ibbs and Kwak, 2000). According to this approach, various project scenarios (for example, different industries, cultures and level of project complexity) have dissimilar needs. As a result, different management styles may be applicable for each project scenario. With relation to top management support, this means that unique top management support processes may be best used in different project scenarios.

As exclusive practices may be most effective for different project scenarios, this paper analyses top management support processes in an important industry in the current “information era”, that is the software sector. The objectives of this paper are to identify the most critical top management support processes in the software sector and to investigate whether these processes are actually used by executives in software organisations. As a result, this paper aims at addressing the following issues:

* Identifying critical top management support processes for the software sector. These processes may allow senior managers to better use their limited time and budget while supporting projects.

* Investigating the actual pattern of support provided by senior managers in software organisations. The objective of this issue is to learn whether senior managers focus on the most effective support processes.

These issues will be analysed through a set of research hypotheses. The paper starts with the presentation of the relevant literature in the areas of software development project management and top management support, raises hypotheses to test, describes research configuration, analyses data and makes specific recommendations.

Information system projects are the provision of a service to implement systems and solutions, including a variety of hardware and software products (Howard, 2001). Projects executed in the software industry are ...