Dynamics of organizational climate on risk and success of software projects

Abstract

The Indian software industry has become successful in making a mark in the global arena. This industry has been instrumental in driving the economy of the nation on to a rapid growth curve. Despite this momentous growth, the Indian software industry still suffers from project delays and failures. There are a number of factors that impact the success of the project and numerous studies have been conducted on these factors time and again. In the present study, an attempt has been made to uncover the project specific risk factors that impact the success of the projects in India. In addition to this, an attempt has also been made to unearth the moderating and collaborative effect of the organizational climate factors on the software risk and the success of the software projects. The present study was therefore, done i) to identify and explore the various project specific risk dimensions affecting the success of the project, ii) to unearth and explore the various organizational climate dimensions present in the organization during the execution of the software projects, iii) to study the moderating effect of organizational climate dimensions and demographic characteristics on the project specific risks by developing a model, and iv) to investigate the collaborative effect of risks and organizational climate on the success of the project and its three performance constructs namely, budget, schedule and quality performance. The study concludes with model validation through the development of case studies by conducting a post-mortem analysis of the four real life software projects. The study is of enormous significance to practitioners as it provides with guidance related to the effects of organizational climate dimensions on the software risks and the success of the software projects. The study provides practitioners with key information that can enable them to take robust managerial decisions.