Impact of COVID-19 on the Factors Influencing On-Time Software Project Delivery: An Empirical Study

Abstract

The objective of this research paper is to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the factors influencing ontime software project delivery in different Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) models such as Agile, Incremental, Waterfall, and Prototype models. Also to identify the change of crucial factors with respect to different demographic information that influences on-time software project delivery. This study has been conducted using a quantitative approach. We surveyed Software Developers, Project Managers, Software Architect, QA Engineer and other roles using a Google form. Python has been used for data analysis purposes. We received 72 responses from 11 different software companies of Bangladesh, based on that we find that Attentional Focus, Team Stability, Communication, Team Maturity, and User Involvement are the most important factors for on-time software project delivery in different SDLC models during COVID-19. On the contrary, before COVID-19 Team Capabilities, Infrastructure, Team Commitment, Team Stability and Team Maturity are found as the most crucial factors. Team Maturity and Team Stability are found as common important factors for both before and during the COVID-19 scenario. We also identified the change in the impact level of factors with respect to demographic information such as experience, company size, and different SDLC models used by participants. Attentional focus is the most important factor for experienced developers while for freshers all factors are almost equally important. This study finds that there is a significant change among factors for on-time software project delivery before and during the COVID-19 scenario.