Journal
M&SOM-MANUFACTURING & SERVICE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Volume 15, Issue 3, Pages 473-491Publisher
INFORMS
DOI: 10.1287/msom.2013.0432
Keywords
product architecture; cycles; modularity; iterative problem solving; defects
Funding
- ENSEAD RD Committee [2520-360, 2520-519]
- Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University
- U.S. Navy, Office of Naval Research [N00014-11-1-0739]
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This paper examines the impact of architectural decisions on the level of defects in a product. We view products as collections of components linked together to work as an integrated whole. Previous work has established modularity (how decoupled a component is from other product components) as a critical determinant of defects, and we confirm its importance. Yet our study also provides empirical evidence for a relationship between product quality and cyclicality (the extent to which a component depends on itself via other product components). We find cyclicality to be a determinant of quality that is distinct from, and no less important than, modularity. Extending this main result, we show how the cyclicality quality relationship is affected by the centrality of a component in a cycle and the distribution of a cycle across product modules. These findings, which are based on an analysis of open source software development projects, have implications for the study and design of complex systems.
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