2. LITERATURE REVIEW
The IT sector is complicated, which naturally increases the complexity of initiatives undertaken in this field. Such big initiatives require a high level of efficiency and activity. These projects are prone to delays owing to a variety of difficult scenarios and challenges. Despite considerable scientific research and better management practices, software projects continue to struggle with a variety of challenges such as delays, disputes, productivity loss, poor performance, and coordination. Poor software project performance is a worldwide problem (Kakaei, 2022).
Software development is divided into stages, each of which necessitates some work (Verma, 2016). That is to say, certain factors affecting development processes in software projects can be reviewed as follows (Tuape & Ayalew, 2019):
  1. Organizational factors : They refer to all factors inside a workplace or entity that have an impact on the people, purpose, work patterns, culture, leadership, and structure of the specific institution.
  2. Business environment factors: They refer to internal or external factors that impact a company’s or organization’s capacity to create and sustain effective customer relationships and are outside the organization’s control. For example, competitors, customers, societal economic trends, government operations, and so forth.
  3. Governance factors: They refer to the application of all acts involved in an organization’s management as well as the effort to regulate the environment in which the organisation operates via continual monitoring and policy. Examples include strategic management, operations, quality control, and corporate strategy.
  4. Technical factors: They are elements that have an impact on how an organisation is operated and connected. Tools, processes, skill levels, experiences, and business knowledge are employed within the context of an organisation.
Developing software, which is one of the IT industry’s subgroups, is a complex process that is difficult to foresee and estimate. Delays are a key issue in software development. As a result, when these initiatives run late, clients become dissatisfied. Delay is a typical occurrence in software projects; thus, it is critical to understand the causes of delays in these projects and their influence on meeting the objectives (Kakaei, 2022). Software projects’ high risk of cost and schedule overruns has long been a source of concern for the software engineering community. One of the challenges in software project management is making reliable predictions of delays in the context of the constant and rapid changes inherent in software projects (Choetkiertikul et al., 2015).
Delays are defined as circumstances that result in an extension of the period scheduled to complete a project (Alotaibi et al., 2015). A project delay is an unforeseen and unexpected postponement of a project due to an incident or occurrence that prevents the project from starting or continuing. It is the amount of time that causes the project duration to be extended and the delivery of project goals and objectives to be disrupted. Project delays can result in a host of issues, some of which may not be apparent at first. Unexpected delays have a substantial financial impact on projects. When there is a delay, resources are squandered, and the company incurs additional costs. Project delays can also harm your company’s reputation among stakeholders and clients. Delays in one client project might induce delays in other projects by tying up resources that could be used elsewhere. Delays in projects can also disrupt the budget, lead the project to deviate from its original path, and, worst of all, result in missed deadlines (Kakaei, 2022).
In software development projects, delays frequently happen during some operations. Many software development projects miss their dates because project delays are not handled effectively (Zhang et al., 2018). In addition to organisational and managerial issues, several technological factors contribute to software development delays (Mohabuth, 2017). Software development projects frequently experience delays due to a variety of causes, including rework, abandonment, and inaccurate initial estimates (Zhang et al., 2018).
Delays in software projects are typically caused by earlier phases, such as inadequate requirement analysis, bad system design, frequent changes in requirements, or faulty project estimation. Similarly, factors for integration testing delays include inadequate unit testing, system architecture, and requirement analysis (Monden et al., 2012). A software project delay may result in increased costs as well as a reduction in the scope and quality of product launch activities. Top management, software managers, and sales and marketing managers must recognise the extensive consequences of a software project delay and manage the problem holistically from the perspective of the entire firm, rather than from the views of particular departments (Rahikkala et al., 2016).
The delay in software projects is considered one of the most important causes of companies incurring high costs and losses that may cause the failure of many systems. There is a real need to reduce the effect of delay causes using comprehensive mitigation measures and advanced tools (Elhusseiny et al., 2021). That is to say, more accurate time and expense estimates for software projects need to be provided by project managers and leaders (Zadeh & Kashef, 2022). Worthy here to mention is that forecasting the total costs of a software project is extremely challenging due to the rapid rate of software change (Briciu et al., 2016). In addition to the lack of accuracy associated with this process. Without specific objectives and the relationship between goals and measurements, as well as the interpretation of those measures, an organisation will not be able to regard the measures as meeting its aims (Monden et al., 2012).
The evaluation point and the ability to quantify the quantitative measurements are the most important part of solving this problem. Understanding the relationships between cause and effect and linking them to delay times will help to understand the delay and discover its aspects, causes, and size of its impact in a clear quantitative manner that can be measured, compared, and followed up on its performance during the stages of the project. It is essential to note that a key problem with delay analysis and the costs associated with it emerges from the absence of a measurement tool or software that is especially suitable for analyzing, registering, categorizing, and identifying the sources of delays and their effects on the different aspects of the project. In addition, using a single software instrument makes it more difficult and inaccurate (Jalal & Yousef, 2017).
The last 40 years have witnessed the introduction of numerous cost estimation models that have been suggested by many researchers. Algorithm-based models and non-algorithm-based models are the two major categories (Armario et al., 2012). Although it is common for people to use software measurement standards, they are not always simple to implement in a specific environment where the data and context are different. Without explicit goals and a connection between goals and measures, an organisation will not have the opportunity to see the measures as fulfilling its goals (Monden et al., 2012).
In 1984, the Goal-driven measurement, also known as the Goal-Question-Metric (GQM) was introduced by Dr Victor Basili and his colleagues (Asghari, 2012). The GQM method is used to explain the connection between metrics and measurement purposes, which is frequently the same as the project objective. To ascertain whether the project objective (measurement purpose) has been attained, questions are evaluated (Nakai et al., 2014). There are four main phases of the GQM identified by (Esteves & Pastor, 2001; Van Solingen & Berghout, 1999) as follows:
  1. The planning phase: The main goals of the planning phase are to gather all the data needed for an effective introduction and to get team members ready for a measurement programme. A project plan is a crucial product of the planning process.
  2. The definition phase: The measurement programme is outlined (goal, questions, metrics, and hypotheses are defined) and documented during this phase.
  3. The data collection phase: This phase occurs when actual data collection takes place to identify the data that is essential for analysis and interpretation took place in the following phase.
  4. The interpretation phase: The interpretation phase is when the gathered data is processed in light of the established metrics to produce measurement outcomes, which then enable the evaluation of target achievement. The four phases can be shown in the following figure: