Antecedents and consequences of team memory in software development projects

Abstract

Team memory is important, yet it is rarely addressed in papers on software development. We investigated the antecedents and consequences of team memory (both declarative and procedural) in software development projects. By examining 67 projects in the IT departments of 38 firms, we found, using PLS that customer orientation and innovation orientation was positively associated with both declarative and procedural memory, social responsibility was positively related to declarative memory, and systematic management control were negatively associated with declarative memory but positively associated with procedural memory. We also found that: declarative memory was positively related to the market success of the software, and procedural memory was positively related to speed-to-market (launching software faster) to the extent that memory was dispersed throughout the project team. Managerial and theoretical implication were further discussed. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.