Diffusion Experiences of Developer Productivity Tools in an IT Services Company in India

IT services organizations deploy a number of tools to improve the productivity and quality of the developed software. Some of these tools deliver significant improvements to software development life cycle. However, use of these tools is often accompanied by a significant change in work practices and high learning barriers thus offsetting some of the advantage. As a result, the tools do not reach the expected levels of adoption. This paper presents the experiences of a software services company in India in the development and deployment of new technology tools for developer productivity. Two tools of varying complexity levels are studied in terms of their diffusion trends. The simpler one which diffused rapidly is a standards checker which satisfied most of the characteristics for successful diffusion according to Roger's model while the complex one (a model driven development framework that was the most sophisticated of its kind at the time of its deployment) did not satisfy majority of the characteristics and had a very slow diffusion rate in spite of its exceptional functionality. The above tool diffusion experiences are analyzed with respect to diffusion factors, diffusion processes, diffusion politics and diffusion services, a categorization well known in the literature. A new tool is designed based on the above learning. Results of the diffusion after the improvements are reported.