Group Development and Software Engineering Performance

Background: Empirical evidence regarding the connection between group development (maturity) and the success of software development teams is lacking. Since software development is primarily a product of team effort that involves human interaction, it is important to investigate the influence of group development on the performance of software development teams. Objective: The purpose of this research is to gain a qualitative and quantitative understanding of how performance of software teams relates to group development. More specifically, the analysis of group maturity and its association with velocity and planning effectiveness is the objective of this research. Method: The Group Development Questionnaire (GDQ) was given to four participating work groups from company A to assess their group development levels. The work groups’ responses to the survey were checked for correlation with development velocity and planning effectiveness. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 individuals to explore issues about their group maturity and to increase the validity of our findings. Results: The group maturity measurement had a strong association with the planning effectiveness measurement and showed a significant convergent validity, which means that a more mature team is also a more effective one in planning its requirements. On the other hand, the correlation results between group development and velocity showed no convergent validity, i.e, the group maturity is not related to the velocity of work groups in accomplishing tasks. Conclusion: We conclude that the dynamics within software development teams relate to their ability to deliver the expected outcome as planned, but does not relate to their ability to work faster.