What do software practitioners really think about project success: A cross-cultural comparison

Due to the increasing globalization of software development we are interested to discover if there exist significant cultural differences in practitioners’ definition of a successful software project. This study presents the results of a survey in which Chilean software practitioners’ perceptions of project success are compared with previous research with US practitioners. Responses from both groups of practitioners indicate that there is a relationship between team-work and success; our results also indicate that there are similar perceptions related to the importance of job satisfaction and project success. However, Chilean responses suggest that if a practitioner is allowed too much freedom within the work environment, job stress results; this in turn is reflected in increasing demands for both job satisfaction and good environmental conditions. This may indicate the potential for the attribution of failure to conditions outside the team, thus preventing a search for problematic team issues and technical problems. In contrast, the data suggests peer control inside the US teams indicating a less stressful environment.