The Effectiveness of External Information Channels in Facilitating Innovation Within Software Development Groups

This study of forty-nine software development groups investigated the effectiveness of ten information channels, linking the software groups to potential information sources about new developments in software methodologies, as a means of facilitating software group innovativeness. While the findings suggest that software group innovativeness can be improved by providing appropriate external information channels, this relationship is contingent on a software group’s internal environment. The channels most commonly provided by those organizations participating in the study tended to be those least effective in promoting innovation.