TIME-TO-COMPLETION FACTORS IN PACKAGED SOFTWARE-DEVELOPMENT

A competitive factor in the way packaged software competes in the mark etplace is through reduction of time-to-completion-delivering the prod uct to market earlier, Time-to-completion measures the development tim e, usually in months, from the beginning of the development effort to its end, This study focuses on the factors-the accelerators-that reduc e time-to-completion, A statistical model is used to assess these fact ors. A diskette-based survey was used to collect data from development efforts at a sample of North American packaged software firms, The da ta are used in a regression model that reveals three factors explainin g 38% of variation in time-to-completion. The three factors are: team cross-functionality (representation of different functional experience s in the team reduces time-to-completion); team independence (a higher degree of independence from top management turns out to increase time -to-completion); and product complexity (which increases time-to-compl etion).