Author:
Cornelia Gaebert
Affiliation:
University of Muenster, Germany
Keyword(s):
Software Development Project, Information, Knowledge, Intellectual Property Rights, Property Rights Theory.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Applications
;
Methodologies and Technologies
;
Operational Research
;
Project Planning, Monitoring and Control
;
Requirements Elicitation and Specification
;
Risk Management
;
Software Engineering
;
Software Engineering Methods and Techniques
;
Software Project Management
Abstract:
A fundamental tenet of the information systems discipline holds that: (a) changing requirements in software
development projects (SDP) are the main reason for failure; (b) therefore, in case of such uncertainties, fixedprice
contracts (FPC) are not suitable for success. Our research, informed by economic theories, compellingly
illustrates that among other things changing requirements stems from missing protection on knowledge. In
this paper, we present an analysis of knowledge difficult to protect. Both parties must share knowledge during
the specification of requirements. However, this business knowledge is an essential intellectual property, and
thus needs protection for misuse. We enact a strategy to achieve SDPs success despite these barriers. Our
theoretical and empirical analysis also found that SDP success is largely an uncertainty problem between the
contractors on the management level, and thus technical-organizational approaches alone are inadequate for
achieving success. B
ased on property rights theory, we introduce two models for protecting knowledge
depending on uncertainties. Our findings offer managers important insights into how they can design and
enact FPC for effectively manage SDPs. Further, we show how the economic theories can enhance
understanding of SDP dynamics and advance the development of a theory of effective control of SDP success.
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