Impact of Human Factors on Software Development: A Case Study Report

This report examines the influence of human factors on software development, using a case study involving a media production company's ERP system extension during the early COVID-19 pandemic. The project involved enabling secure remote access for employees, highlighting the impact of organizational structure, individual cognitive abilities, and team dynamics. The analysis delves into individual factors like meeting attendance and cognitive differences, group dynamics affecting workflow and productivity, and organizational culture's role in project success. The report emphasizes the importance of stakeholder management, collaboration, and communication in overcoming challenges and achieving successful software development outcomes, particularly in remote work environments. It also highlights the significance of cognitive ability, social interactions and organizational culture in coming up with a successful software product.

Human Factors in Software Development
Read and Write: Behavioural Software Engineering Papers
Ahmed Ismail
PA2581

Introduction
Software development is a project that requires the input of different stakeholders. The quality of the
software developed during the project is usually determined by how well the management of the
stakeholders was undertaken during the project. Therefore, proper management must be undertaken to
ensure that the outcome of the project is of the highest quality. However, just like in all other aspects of
life, dealing with individuals in any project is usually faced by various challenges. This paper looks at an
example of a software development project. There will also be a review of the various human factors
which have an impact on software development.
A Situation where Human factors affected software Development
I have experienced a situation before where human factors affected software development. The project
was undertaken during the early onset of the Covid-19 pandemic which forced most businesses to
suspend activities or have the employees work from home. The project involved coming up with an
extension on the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system of a company X. The company is a media
production company which produces documentaries for mainstream media and their Video on Demand
platform. The VOD platform was the only system that could be accessed from outside. However, the rest
of the ERP system used in the company could not be accessed remotely. The required extension would
allow the employees of the company to work securely from remote locations. Company X had for a long
time avoided opening their systems to outside access and as a result, the design of the ERP system had
blocked any possibilities of outside access.
The ERP system being used was developed by freelance software developers who were out of the country
and could provide limited support. As a result, company Y which I was working for was tasked with the
project. The employees were required to work from home as the company was forced to comply with the
work from home policies put in place by the government. This forced the management of the company X

to contact us to help in achieving the upgrade needed in their system to allow secure remote access. We
were also required to provide a virtual environment where the employees could work as a team.
An analysis of the Situation
The software development project was given to us and we started with system analysis. The organization
structure of company X was set in a way that allowed collaboration with third parties. This was achieved
by keeping contacts of all contractors and third parties who had worked before. In case anything came up,
the third-party contractors could be contacted to help solving the problem. This was essential because this
provision allowed us to be able to understand the working of the existing system easily. We were also
able to work with the IT team of the company in understanding how the company’s employees use the
system. We were able to start well as a result of the organization structure. The organization's structure
and culture of company X were designed to allow cooperation between the company and third-party
software developers. According to Lenberg, Feldt, and Wallgren (2014), organizational culture and
structure is an important factor in ensuring that software development projects are successful.
The human factors are divided into individual, group, and organization factors. At the beginning of the
project, we were also required to work remotely with only scheduled visits and meetings with the
company X employees and management. At this point, I realized various individual issues that affected
the project. There were several individuals both form my company and company X who did not show up
for meetings early enough. This led to delays in a meeting. Considering that during the period there was a
night curfew, most of the time some tasks could not be achieved from the meetings as we had to leave
early.
There was also an issue of cognitive ability. Different individuals were able to understand concepts
differently. This led to a problem and an advantage at the same time. It was easy to deduce the
requirements of the employees from some members of staff. However, some found it hard to explain
themselves on what they required from the system. It is important to note that gathering requirements

from the expected users of the system ensure that the system designed will meet the requirements
(Pacheco & Garcia, 2012).
Furthermore, some individuals could not work on their own and as a result, needed to consult from other
parties who at times were not available. This brought some issues of working as a group. I realized that
working as a group faced various challenges as some decisions and skills depended on what other parties
had undertaken. There was also the issue wherein case certain individuals were in the group, workflow
and productivity increased exponentially. However, when the individuals were not there, there was a
decline in the general performance of the group. The apparent behavior of individuals determined the
social groups in which they belonged and the social groups determined the organizational culture we had
to deal with. This is something that affected both company X and my company.
The quality of the software is hugely based on the cooperation of the team and not on the tools of
software development. Organizations dealing with the development of software are usually faced with
various challenges and issues including human factors (Lenberg, Feldt, & Wallgren, 2015). This is
because the production of software is mainly a result of activities undertaken by people (Capretz, 2014).
Therefore, it is important to ensure that human resources are well coordinated. During the development of
the software, we had an easier time considering the team is mostly made it up with the freelance software
developers who over time have been able to learn how to work with the team remotely.
With the successful development of the extension, we were able to test it on the system and was able to
work well. After that, we were required to train individuals from the company on how to access the ERP
system using the extension. During this phase cognitive ability also played out as some individuals were
able to understand faster than others. However, using peer teaching was the best way as those who had
grasped the idea of using the extension would help to train those in their social groups. So, we subdivided
them into groups to make it easier. We were also able to work with the IT department to be able to train
the employees. They were easily able to train as they had worked with the employees before and
understood.

Conclusion
In conclusion, various human factors affect the development of any software product. From the example
above it’s apparent that there are various issues that one is bound to face when developing software.
However, because it is led by human activities, human factors are important in achieving the requirements
during software development.
Cognitive ability, individual behavior, social interactions and organizational culture is an important issue
in coming up with a successful software product. Therefore, the example takes place in the place of work
where we are supposed to develop a software extension that is required to help Company X employees
access the ERP system remotely.
Several key things take place throughout the project. First, there is a need to gather the requirements from
all stakeholders who are met through face to face meetings and also through online platforms. The next
key thing is trying to collaborate with developer, programmers and another project team members
remotely considering that the project is undertaken at a time when social distancing is highly encouraged.
The other key thing which happens, is that the change which is brought as the work to be undertaken is to
be done online and remotely. Various human aspects affect the whole project. The human processes are
collaboration, management, teaching and learning, communication, software testing, and also scheduling
of activities. From the above, it is evident that human factors are at the core of the software development
process.

References
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Lenberg, P., Feldt, R., & Wallgren, L.-G. (2014). Towards a behavioral software engineering. In
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Pacheco, C., & Garcia, I. (2012). A systematic literature review of stakeholder identification methods in
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