Omission of quality software development practices: A systematic literature review

Hadi Ghanbari, Tero Vartiainen, Mikko Siponen

Research output: Contribution to journalReview Articlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Software deficiencies are minimized by utilizing recommended software development and quality assurance practices. However, these recommended practices (i.e., quality practices) become ineffective if software professionals purposefully ignore them. Conducting a systematic literature review (n = 4,838), we discovered that only a small number of previous studies, within software engineering and information systems literature, have investigated the omission of quality practices. These studies explain the omission of quality practices mainly as a result of organizational decisions and trade-offs made under resource constraints or market pressure. However, our study indicates that different aspects of this phenomenon deserve further research. In particular, future research must investigate the conditions triggering the omission of quality practices and the processes through which this phenomenon occurs. Especially, since software development is a human-centric phenomenon, the psychological and behavioral aspects of this process deserve in-depth empirical investigation. In addition, futures research must clarify the social, organizational, and economical consequences of ignoring quality practices. Gaining in-depth theoretically sound and empirically grounded understandings about different aspects of this phenomenon enables research and practice to suggest interventions to overcome this issue.

Original languageEnglish
Article number38
JournalACM Computing Surveys
Volume51
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2018
MoE publication typeA2 Review article, Literature review, Systematic review

Keywords

  • Behavioral software engineering
  • Systematic literature review
  • Technical debt

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