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International Conference of Software Business

ICSOB 2015: Software Business pp 1–16Cite as

The Benefits and Consequences of Workarounds in Software Development Projects

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 210))

Abstract

Workarounds have existed in software from the very beginning. Being a formalized collection of knowledge rather than a physical artifact, software allows shortcuts in its development process. The shortcuts serve various purposes, like releasing a product to the market faster or postponing the solution of a problem. In this article, we present the findings of an investigation of workarounds in two software companies. Our analysis reveals that the decisions to take a workaround to resolve a technical issue are often intentional and forced by time-to-market requirements. However, the stakeholders are not always familiar with the negative consequences of taking workarounds, like additional hours, costs, and poor quality. We argue that the decision to take a workaround is often made by business managers who see short-term benefits only while developers have to deal with negative consequences in long-term.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business and Management, Innovation and Software, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Jesse Yli-Huumo, Andrey Maglyas & Kari Smolander

Authors
  1. Jesse Yli-Huumo
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  2. Andrey Maglyas
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  3. Kari Smolander
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jesse Yli-Huumo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minho, Braga, Portugal

    João M. Fernandes

  2. University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal

    Ricardo J. Machado

  3. Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden

    Krzysztof Wnuk

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Yli-Huumo, J., Maglyas, A., Smolander, K. (2015). The Benefits and Consequences of Workarounds in Software Development Projects. In: Fernandes, J., Machado, R., Wnuk, K. (eds) Software Business. ICSOB 2015. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 210. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19593-3_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19593-3_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-19592-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-19593-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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