Understanding the relationship of conflict and success in software development projects

Context: Software development incorporates numerous people with diverse expertise and expectations. This makes conflict a common phenomenon in software development. Besides human causes, many conflicts in software development root in the tools and processes. Moreover, the growing role of software in any type of system is increasing the heterogeneity in software projects. The number and variety of tools and processes are increasing. Nevertheless, the relationship between conflicts, particularly rooted in non-human elements, and software project success is still unclear. Objective: We aim to understand the impact of conflict on the success of software development projects for different types of conflict and different environments. Particularly, we distinguish between human-rooted conflict (HRC) and non-human-rooted conflict (NHRC). Moreover, we investigate whether organization size and team size moderate the impact of conflict on software project success. Methods: First, we conduct a survey and analyze it using structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate any correlation between conflict and software project success. Second, we explore the reasons behind the relationship between conflict and software project success by conducing 13 semi-structured expert interviews. Results: HRC is always a threat to software project success for any organization or team size. Based on the interviews, resolving an HRC is regularly problematic. On the other hand, NHRC is negatively correlated with software project success only in corporate organizations and small teams. High coordination overhead and dependency on tools and processes make NHRC more influential in corporate organizations. In contrast, overlooking non-human elements and lack of experienced individuals in smaller teams make them more vulnerable to NHRC. Conclusion: While the detrimental impact of HRC is constant for software project success, NHRC can be controlled efficiently. Corporate organizations need to frequently improve the non-human elements in the development. Smaller teams should expect tools and processes to be significantly influential in their success.