Team structure and team performance in IS development: a social network perspective

Teamwork during IS development (ISD) is an important issue. This paper discusses the relationship between team structure and ISD team performance using a social network approach. Based on empirical evidence collected from 25 teams in a system analysis and design course, we found that: (1) Group cohesion was positively related to overall performance. (2) Group conflict indexes were not significantly correlated with overall performance. (3) Group characteristics, e.g., cohesion and conflict, fluctuated in different phases, but in later stages, much less cohesion occurred and the advice network seemed to be very important. (4) Group structures seemed to be a critical factor for good performance. Further in-depth studies were conducted on teams exhibiting the highest and lowest performance to determine their differences from a sociogram analysis perspective. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.