Exploring National Culture in Software Development Practices

The software development industry has become globalised. Trends which have contributed to globalisation include the maturation of software industries in developing countries, collaborative teams covering extended geographic areas, and migration of computing professionals. This paper analyses the Australian computer professional workforce and determines that 40 percent of computing professionals were not born in Australia. Results from surveys about adoption of software development best practice conducted in 16 countries are then summarised and analysed using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. The discussion considers the efficacy of the concept ‘national culture ’ in light of the analysis and concludes that information systems researchers need to reconsider what national culture is, and how it can best be measured