EFFECT OF PEOPLE FACTORS ON EXECUTION PERFORMANCE OF SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

Software Development Industry is one of the key players of the Sri Lankan economy. Hence, the performance of
software companies is a very crucial factor for the growth of the country. Since software development activities bear the
characteristics of projects, primary management method used by the industry to produce software is project management
methodology. However it is evident that the success rate of software projects in the industry is not at a satisfactory level.
One of the major causes of higher failure rate is lack of good project management practices. Projects are implemented
applying five phased project management lifecycle namely; initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling and
closing. A number of critical success factors influence the performance of these phases. This article aims to examine the
effect of people factors on execution performance of software development projects in Sri Lanka. Main people factors
considered are, project manager experience, team capability, user contribution, and customer contribution. Data was
collected from 298 managers using a web based tool. The reliability of the data was analyzed using Cronbach's alpha
coefficient. The relationship between variables was measured using Pearson correlation test. Regression analysis was used
to ascertain the effect of variables. The results indicate that Team capability is significant predictors of execution
performance of software development projects in Sri Lanka.