Factors influencing group member satisfaction in the software industry

Abstract

Software Development is a group process involving several stakeholders making decisions based on a number of factors. Research in Group Decision-Making reveals that satisfaction of group members plays a significant role in the performance of the group and the outcomes. In this paper, we present the details of our study on the factors influencing the satisfaction of group members in software projects. While there has been good amount of work on satisfaction of group members through experiments, very few of them talk about satisfaction levels of current practitioners. We surveyed 80 software professionals from different companies in India and abroad at various levels of hierarchy. We found that participation of leader and other group members in the group decision-making process has significant impact on the satisfaction with the decision outcome. While currently the software industry is focusing on technology to make better decisions, our survey gives key insights on how social factors influence the decision outcomes and the role of a leader in enhancing the satisfaction of group members.