Harris Hierarchy of Software Development Support Needs

This paper describes the authors’ hypothesis that software development organizations operate at different levels in a hierarchy of needs modeled on the Maslow Hierarchy of needs. The Harris Hierarchy of Software Development Needs has four levels representing operating states of the software development organization: Failure, Fear of Failure, Control and Value. The paper describes how the new model can be applied to software development organizations. It describes what an assessment might look like for an example organization with an actual assessment for a real organization. The authors suggest metrics for the assessment. Finally, the paper suggests events that might cause a positive or negative transition through the level of the model.