A framework for investigating software project schedule behaviour

This paper describes an ongoing empirical investigation into software project schedule behaviour at a leading, international software development organisation. Due to the complexity of the phenomena being observed and the diversity and volume of empirical evidence being collected, a framework is proposed. The framework both facilitates the organisation of single and multiple sources of evidence and acts as a foundation for the subsequent analysis of that evidence. The core of the framework is concerned with the interaction between three main constructs, duration, capability and workload. In addition to considering other evidence, the paper reports on the application of this framework to over 2000 statements from project meeting minutes. Rather than presenting definitive findings, the paper demonstrates how the framework can be used to organise and analyse “real world” complex evidence of a variety of types, and evaluates the use of the framework for such organisation and analysis. The main conclusion from the evaluation was that incompatibilities between the requirements of the framework and the nature of the evidence lead to difficulties in using the framework effectively. This has challenged our initial position, which was that the framework would prove to be a practical method for investigating software project schedule behaviour.