An optimization model to allocate most suitable team members for software development projects

Abstract

Human resource is one of the most important resource that creates value for software development projects. However, this becomes more complex when the required range of skills, knowledge, experience and expertise, increases. Many software development projects have failed due to wrong mapping of team members to expected goals. Therefore, it is vital to fill the optimal number of positions required by the most qualified employees for each project, under each designation and to find the most suitable person for each designation. Practically, there is no specific methodology or a system available to match team members to achieve the scope of a given project, as some of the requirements are subjective and the rest are objective. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to develop a model to determine the optimal number of team positions required to be filled, to contribute most to achieve the project scope, quality and meeting the deadlines. In this case, analytical network process together with application of linear programming determine the position to be filled by whom, to optimize the quality and the scope of the project. This is an effective way of selecting suitable team members while meeting the subjective and objective resource constraints to derive maximum benefits not only for the software development project, but for the company as well.