Socio-Technical Congruence as an Emerging Concept in Software Development: A Scientometric Analysis and Critical Literature Review

Ample evidence in the literature emphasizes using socio-technical congruence (STC) to address coordination issues in distributed software development. The recent decades have shown a progressive growth in STC, resulting in an increasing number of research studies in the scientific corpora. However, no existing study has systematically analyzed and illustrated the research patterns, latest trends, and evolution in STC. This study aims to explore the knowledge structure and create evolutionary trajectories from STC publications. To achieve this aim, a scientometric analysis is performed that combined a critical literature review (CLR) of STC-related published research in the Web of Science and Scopus databases from 2000 to 2020. The scientometric analysis is conducted through four scientometric techniques: 1) co-word network analysis; 2) co-author network analysis; 3) co-citation analysis; 4) document clustering with timeline analysis. The study outcomes will help understand and visualize STC’s research status quo. CLR is objectively conducted to recognize the latest research topics, themes, and salient features of STC research in software development. A total of 306 bibliographic data are analyzed to generate study-related networks and density visualizations. The results reveal an evolution in the STC field from its conception to the recent developments of STC models and other related factors. This study primarily contributes to the literature by providing a systematic view related to STC research to assist software practitioners in identifying applications and key research areas. Moreover, the combination of scientometric analysis and CLR reveals key researchers, journals and conferences, institutions, prominent contributing countries, and six major research themes, including “community structure” and “socio-technical congruence” as the most prominent ones.