In a recently published study, we examine the impact of communication network characteristics on project performance, measured in terms of the number of issues closed within open-source software development projects. We also examine how this project outcome is affected by project managers' active participation in these communication networks. The results obtained from analyzing 120,243 observations of unbalanced dynamic panel show that with higher team interaction the technical problem-solving capability of team initially increases but then decreases. We find that project manager's participation in team discussions increases its problem-solving capability. That is, there is a moderating effect of manager participation in flattening the curvilinear relationship between team interaction and technical problem-solving performance. In essence, project managers' active participation alleviates the reduction in weekly issue closure rate once the density of team interaction goes beyond the inflection point.
The findings have implications for project managers and developers working on OSS projects. Our research provides recommendations on the attributes of the project manager that would be best suited for improving project team performance and sheds light on aspects of team communication that a project manager may need to manage. The project manager should promote team interaction to enable the flow of ideas and information to improve the issue resolution rate of the team. However, the project manager must remain aware of the growing fatigue from information overload in teams. Our research provides evidence for the inflection point beyond which such fatigue might start to impede project performance. We identify the specific time when the project manager should intervene to reduce the negative effects of information overload. Such an understanding enables project managers to make the best use of the project management hours and add value.
As issue closure is often required for bug fixes in new product development, our study shows that overall product development will substantially improve at high team interaction by employing a manager who actively engages in team interactions, enabling faster product development to the market cycle. As team member interaction intensity can seldom be controlled, our study provides guidance how expensive project management resources can be allocated depending on the extent of team interaction to shorten the new product development cycle.
The findings of this research also have implications for how OSS platforms can be made more effective in managing software development activities. Since team
performance decreases with additional team interactions after an inflection point, OSS platforms could consider developing a system that categorizes communication notifications that a team member receives (such as a thread or message broadcast) depending on the priority level. For example, suppose a software project on GitHub has several modules based on which developers are grouped. Developers will prefer to stay updated on the messages from their colleagues working on the same inflection point identified in this study could serve as a reference point for the platform when project performance is impacted by information overload. The system developed by the OSS platform could get triggered at this reference point so that communication notification to team members can be prioritized based on the module that a developer is working on. In turn, developers can focus on a few important messages to enhance team
performance.
The OSS platform may also aid project managers to participate more in team activities as our results suggest that active participation of project managers enhances team performance by flattening the curve. For instance, the platform may provide project managers with a dashboard that summarizes project progress. Such a service may enable the manager to get a quick and accurate update of the team and may help the manager to participate in a more meaningful way. The platform may also provide a metric that measures the relevance of communication by developers, enabling managers to efficiently streamline communication within their teams.