Software Process Improvement as Organizational Change: A Metaphorical Analysis of the Literature

Software Process Improvement (SPI) typically involves rather complex organizational changes. Acknowledging that managers can approach these changes in quite different ways, this paper addresses the following question: What perspectives do the research literature offer on SPI as organizational change and how is this knowledge presented and published? To answer this question, we analyzed SPI research publications with a main emphasis on organizational change using Gareth Morgan’s organizational metaphors (1996) as analytical lenses. In addition, we characterized each article along the following dimensions: knowledge orientation (normative versus descriptive), theoretical emphasis (high versus low), main audience (practitioner versus academic), geographical origin (Scandinavia, the Americas, Europe, or the Asia-Pacific), and publication level (high versus low ranked journal). The review demonstrates that the literature as a whole is firmly grounded in both theory and practice, it appropriately targets both practitioner and academic audiences, and Scandinavian and American researchers are the main contributors.

However, the distribution of articles across Morgan’s metaphors is uneven and reveals knowledge gaps that present new avenues for research. The current literature offers important insights into organizational change in SPI when viewed through machine, organism, flux and transformation, and brain metaphors. Practitioners may use these articles to guide SPI initiatives. In contrast, the impact of culture, dominance, psychic prison, and politics in SPI have only received scant attention. We argue that these perspectives could offer important additional insights into the challenges involved in managing SPI. Researchers are therefore advised to engage in new SPI research based on one or more of these perspectives. Overall, the paper offers research directions and management lessons, and it provides a roadmap to help identify insights and specific articles related to SPI as organizational change.