Using System Dynamics to Analyze the Effect of Funding Fluctuations on Software Development

Almost everyone understands that budget fluctuations have an impact on software development, but it is difficult to estimate the magnitude of the impact and all the causes. This paper uses System Dynamics modeling to examine how gaps in funding affect software development productivity and product de...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Trammell, Travis (Author), Madnick, Stuart E. (Contributor), Moulton, Allen (Contributor)
Other Authors: MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center (Contributor), Sloan School of Management (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM), 2015-09-28T13:25:41Z.
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Online Access:Get fulltext
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100 1 0 |a Trammell, Travis  |e author 
100 1 0 |a MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Sloan School of Management  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Madnick, Stuart E.  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Moulton, Allen  |e contributor 
700 1 0 |a Madnick, Stuart E.  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Moulton, Allen  |e author 
245 0 0 |a Using System Dynamics to Analyze the Effect of Funding Fluctuations on Software Development 
260 |b American Society for Engineering Management (ASEM),   |c 2015-09-28T13:25:41Z. 
856 |z Get fulltext  |u http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98916 
520 |a Almost everyone understands that budget fluctuations have an impact on software development, but it is difficult to estimate the magnitude of the impact and all the causes. This paper uses System Dynamics modeling to examine how gaps in funding affect software development productivity and product delivery delay. The results provide decision makers with an improved sense of the negative impacts of budget fluctuations. Two key insights include the "ramp up tax" that slows development and the "gap tax" due to the loss of project-related skill and familiarity when employees are transferred off of a project and then return. The model experiments also compare the different impacts of temporarily stopping a project versus stretching out a project by temporarily reducing the funding level. 
520 |a Defense Intelligence Agency (U.S.) (MIT Lincoln Laboratory Contract 16-11-TCO-0013) 
546 |a en_US 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t Proceedings of the 34th International Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Management 2013 (ASEM 2013)