Explaining Developer Attitude Toward Using Formalized Commercial Methodologies: Decomposing Perceived Usefulness

Although software development methodologies can improve software quality, developers typically have a negative attitude toward using them. To encourage a positive attitude, organizations must convince developers of the usefulness of methodologies. However, the traditional conceptualization of perceived usefulness (PU) may not be detailed enough to explain and engender positive developer attitudes toward methodologies. To determine the ways in which a methodology is useful, in this paper, the authors propose and test a multidimensional conceptualization of PU. A survey of software developers suggests that in the context of methodologies, PU is multidimensional, helping developers achieve a variety of objectives.