On the Alignment of Organizational and Software Structure
Cleidson R. B. de Souza, David Redmiles · IGI Global eBooks · 2009
This chapter reviews the socio-technical relationship between organizational and software structure. It describes the early theoretical work about this relationship, the empirical studies that identified this relationship in practice and, more importantly, identifies two main approaches for exploring this relationship. The first one is based on the construction of tools to facilitate software development, while the second is a more theoretical one aimed at investigating the consequences of this relationship in the work of software developers. Furthermore, the authors hope the theoretical background presented in this chapter will not only motivate other researchers to study software development as a socio-technical endeavor, but also assist practitioners in the understanding of the aspects necessary to make software development succeed.