A STRUCTURAL MODEL FOR EVALUATING DEVELOPMENT SKILLS OF MEXICAN SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS

The need to hire external software providers to satisfy any specific needs or requirements that cannot be resolved within organizations and companies has been a common practice for years because the many advantages and benefits it provides to such companies, namely it allows them to remain competitive in a fast-paced and globalized world. In particular, software related necessities require special attention due to the high importance and relevance software-based solutions have gained in recent years in virtually any practical case. Hence, it is very important to develop methods or procedures that can help identify the most relevant skills that engineers should possess in or-der to show adequate performances and successfully contribute in any business or commercial software development projects. The purpose of this work is to develop and validate a structur-al model to evaluate the set of skills that software developers in Mexico should have from the perspective of the client com-pany. In our study we applied a questionnaire-based survey to 258 companies who subcontracted software related services to external providers or vendors. Our results and reliability of our model was validated using the SMART-PLS software.