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Control of Flexible Software Development Under Uncertainty

School of Business, Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, Indiana 47150
Information Systems and Decisions Sciences, College of Business, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620
Information Systems and Decisions Sciences, College of Business, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620
harris60{at}ius.edu
rcollins{at}coba.usf.edu
ahevner{at}coba.usf.edu

When should software development teams have the flexibility to modify their directions and how do we balance that flexibility with controls essential to produce acceptable outcomes? We use dynamic capabilities theory and an extension of control theory to understand these questions. This work is examined in a case study. Our results demonstrate that flexibility may be needed when the starting conditions are uncertain and that effective control in these situations requires use of traditional controls plus a new type of control we term emergent outcome control.

Key Words: control theory; uncertainty; flexible development; agile development; emergent outcome control
History: This paper was received on June 1, 2007.

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