Teams in packaged software development: The Software Corp. experience

Packaged software companies evolve in an environment characterized by ever-shorter product life cycles and ever-increasing competition. Reaching the marketplace first is often the way to gain a competitive advantage. This situation leads many packaged software organizations to change both their (often sequential) software development processes and rely on (often cross-functional) teams. Reports on the software development practices of Software Corp., an organization developing software products for the travel industry, which experimented with several different approaches and finally implemented cross-functional development teams. Data presented show that changes in the software development process deeply affect many aspects of the organization. The conclusions emphasize the importance of considering the work culture and organizational history when implementing a new software development method and highlight the importance of clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of all groups involved and the necessity to modify the company's performance-appraisal system to promote and support the new organizational objectives embodied in the changes in software development methods.