Undersizing software systems: third versus fourth generation software development
Mary R. Lind, Joanne M. Sulek · European Journal of Information Systems · 1998
A critical component of information systems (IS) project management is completing projects on time; however, most software development efforts have completion time overruns. This study examines the prior research in IS project management for assessing the completion time for new software development projects and discusses a project management phenomenon where the expected time for project completion is undersized. At one firm two groups of software development projects are examined: (1) Cobol projects (third generation) and (2) Natural (fourth generation). It was found that both the Cobol and Natural projects experienced similar overruns. Undersizing is posited as the explanation.