Overcoming the Scheduling Barriers in Software Project: A Revisit of the Relation Between Development Time and Development Effort

Scheduling is an important management activity in software projects. The relationship between nominal development time and development effort has been characterized as a power-law function where development time is dependent on development effort. Studies performed in 1980s determined that there is a scheduling barrier for any software project given the amount of effort to complete the project. Specifically, the studies found out that it is extremely difficult to reduce the development time lowering than a threshold calculated based on the nominal development time. Scheduling barriers are largely due to the complexity of interactions and communications among developers. Thirty years later, this paper examines six software projects in order to understand the relationship between development time and development effort in the 21st century. The author's study suggests that in modern software development, scheduling barriers could be broken through improving the efficiencies of communications, collaborations, and project management.