COMPLEXITY WITHIN SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS: AN EXPLORATORY OVERVIEW

Currently, success is hard to achieve in software development (SD) projects. Studies have reported in which only 35% of projects might be considered as successful. In the same time, projects have been progressively more complex, what makes it even more challenging to succeed in such projects. People, in general, do not properly understand complexity phenomena besides the common sense of something is difficulty to achieve or resolve. Hence, in order to being able to cope with complexity, people need – beforehand – understand properly what it is. Therefore, this study claims that both – practitioners and researchers – should know theories, concepts and definitions for assessing and reflecting about complexity and taking decision in such environments. In addition, it might be important and useful know models and approaches for managing complex projects and navigate on complex situations. In fact, this research is an extensive and exploratory literature review based on works found in, both academic and industrial, search engines from 1990 until 2015. Then, it was necessary to identify the most remarkable ones according to the purpose of this paper by reading and categorizing them. The finding included an inclusive (not exclusive) definition of complexity/complex projects. Moreover, it was found some models and approach for supporting managers and team members working in complex project. The main limitations related to the study include the absence of a formal approach for performing the literature review (e.g. Systematic Literature Review); and the lack of empirical evidence (e.g. case studies, focus group, survey, etc.) obtained from real-world projects in order to increase reliability and robustness. These limitations open a field for future works and studies both in academia and in industry