Modelling the Factors Driving the Quality of Meetings in the Software Development Process

It is a well-known fact that communication mechanisms within large-scale software development are important to ensure the success of projects. The empirical study described here investigates factors driving the outcome quality of various types of meetings, taking place during software development activities at Bosch Telecom Private Networks. The dependent variable under study is the perceived quality of the results of a meeting; the independent variables investigated are the number of participants, the setting of a meeting (reason, leadership style), the number of organisational roles involved, and its duration. The analysis methods used to explore and confirm the relationships between independent and dependent variables include Classification Trees and Logistic Regression. In addition, a questionnaire was designed and administered to help us interpret the outcome of the statistical analysis. This study is based on a data set of about two hundred data points (i.e., meetings) and, therefore, made multivariate analysis possible. The results of the study show that there is supporting evidence that several attributes are significant factors driving the quality of meetings. The questionnaire results helped us gain a better understanding of how various factors influence a meeting’s outcome. This, in turn, leads to suggestions on the way to improve communication through meetings. The methodology presented here for data collection and analysis is widely reusable in other software development organisations, and for other process improvement issues to be addressed by measurement.