Mindfulness in Early Signs to Manage Software Projects in the Face of Uncertainty

Abstract

Context: In recent years, companies have undergone a renewal of management strategies while searching for space in the market. The involvement of these companies in developing innovative software projects as a form of differentiation in products and services is common. Innovative projects are uncertain by nature, since the behaviour and evolution of the market and technological development may not be predicted. There is a natural relation between software projects that have an innovation degree and uncertainties. Objective: The aim of this paper is to discuss some aspects related to uncertainty management to understand the recommendations that positively influence project management in the face of uncertainties and the method of using the knowledge acquired during this study to provide strategic orientations that can be used by the industry to improve organizations' performance and their projects. Method: This study was built on evidence-based software engineering and provides subsidy for the need to address uncertainty in software projects in order to reduce the negative impacts caused by them. In this article, the interviews' results and focus group conducted with project managers and project management researchers are presented. The interviews and focus group aimed to assess the previous concepts as well as the new practical ones. Results: During the interviews, the concept of early signs was designed and associated with the management of software project uncertainties. In addition, project managers became aware of the mindfulness concept and its use for observing projects' uncertainties in order to ensure its success. Based on information collected from managers and literature review, a series of recommendations were drawn. Furthermore, the recommendations were evaluated by a focus group. Finally, a series of recommendations were designed in order to help the software project managers. Conclusion: This study contributes to software project management by developing recommendations to manage uncertainties.