This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Austin, R. D. Search for Related Content

The Effects of Time Pressure on Quality in Software Development: An Agency Model

Harvard Business School, Soldiers Field, Boston, Massachusetts 02163
raustin{at}hbs.edu

An agency framework is used to model the behavior of software developers as they weigh concerns about product quality against concerns about missing individual task deadlines. Developers who care about quality but fear the career impact of missed deadlines may take "shortcuts." Managers sometimes attempt to reduce this risk via their deadline-setting policies; a common method involves adding slack to best estimates when setting deadlines to partially alleviate the time pressures believed to encourage shortcut-taking. This paper derives a formal relationship between deadline-setting policies and software product quality. It shows that: (1) adding slack does not always preserve quality, thus, systematically adding slack is an incomplete policy for minimizing costs; (2) costs can be minimized by adopting policies that permit estimates of completion dates and deadlines that are different and; (3) contrary to casual intuition, shortcut-taking can be eliminated by setting deadlines aggressively, thereby maintaining or even increasing the time pressures under which developers work.

Key Words: Agency Theory; Principal-Agent; Software Quality; Software Measurement; Software Estimating
History: This paper was received on August 30, 1995.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				N. Levina Collaborating on Multiparty Information Systems Development Projects: A Collective Reflection-in-Action View Information Systems Research, June 1, 2005; 16(2): 109 - 130. [Abstract] [PDF]

				C. W. Fisher, I. Chengalur-Smith, and D. P. Ballou The Impact of Experience and Time on the Use of Data Quality Information in Decision Making Information Systems Research, June 1, 2003; 14(2): 170 - 188. [Abstract] [PDF]

				E. v. Hippel and G. v. Krogh Open Source Software and the "Private-Collective" Innovation Model: Issues for Organization Science Organization Science, March 1, 2003; 14(2): 209 - 223. [Abstract] [PDF]