Structuralism, practice, and complexities in small software companies

Abstract

The rapid expansion of the Software Engineering industry has exceeded its maturity, as evidenced by the proliferation of Small Software Companies (SSCs), which constitute up to 90 percent of the software companies on the market. The SSCs, typically employ between 1 to 50 employees, these companies grapple with distinctive challenges rooted in their organisational structures, impeding the adoption of established software development practices and tools. Consequently, software quality declines, resulting in a concerning 75 percent increase in software failure rates, primarily attributed to SSCs. These challenges persist and have intensified post-COVID-19, with a surge in SSC numbers amid quality concerns. Notably, many tools and methods developed to address these issues remain underutilised.

This study aims to address these challenges by formulating frameworks, models, and theories to facilitate the adoption of process tools within SSCs, providing insights into their unique challenges. By addressing these knowledge gaps, this research aims to enhance software practices in SSCs, strengthen the quality and success of software projects, and contribute to broader societal transformation.

Given pervasive issues in software development processes (SDP) and product quality within SSCs and recognising existing research gaps, this thesis employs a mixedmethod approach to delve into the intricacies of software development practices, their structural foundations, and the resulting complexities hindering process adoption and compromising quality. The overarching goal is to construct theoretical constructs shedding light on the shortage of software development tool adoption in SSCs and propose tools and frameworks to streamline SDP within these companies. To realise this objective, the thesis is operationalised through three key research questions:

1. How does the structure of SSCs contribute to the failure of process adoption in software development?

2. What is the relationship between the organisational structure of SSCs and their processes in practice, organisational dynamics, governance, and software development context?

3. What are the non-technical characteristics that influence the failure of process adoption in SSCs, as experienced and perceived by practitioners?

Addressing these research questions underscores the pressing need to understand how SSCs' organisational structures contribute to process adoption failures, the interaction of structural aspects with various organisational factors, and the role of non-technical elements in influencing process adoption.

This thesis is based on six scientific publications following an eclectic mixed-method approach with an exploratory sequential design, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches. The principles used in mixed method research (complementarity and completeness) create a valuable toolkit to enhance the depth and quality of investigations. The thesis integrates insights from multiple perspectives of literature studies, surveys, and grounded theory, offering a comprehensive understanding of software practice in SSCs. The findings reveal limited tool utilisation, ad hoc practices, challenges in the SSC operational context, governance issues, and their dependence on SSC structure, leading to complexity, low productivity, process tool adoption difficulties, and rework affecting software development practice.

The contributions of this thesis are manifold: (i) the thesis synthesises and organises the challenges in software practices of SSCs into a theoretical framework that encompasses process tools, influencing factors, quality, and adoption mechanisms. (ii) It investigates the impact of structuralism on process utilisation, enriching software engineering literature with a focus on the SSC context and proposing a customer engagement framework. (iii) The thesis emphasises the significance of organisational dynamics and governance in SSCs and proposes an organisational governance model. (iv) The thesis proposes five non-technical characteristics of SSCs and formulates a hypothesis to explain and predict software engineering process adoption in these contexts.