Team task skills as a facilitator for application and development skills

Software development requires the application of diverse skills from various sources. Often these are considered to be skills in development methodologies, application domains, and accomplishing general team tasks. Previous research, however, fails to establish a direct link between skills present in the development team and successful performance of the software development project. In an attempt to determine a more accurate representation of the importance of skills in the project, we develop a model that considers team task skills as a moderator to the more specific application domain and development methods skills. A survey of software development professionals validates the model indicating that basic skills in completing team tasks facilitate other skills in achieving improved project performance. In the short term, project teams must be formed to include a higher level of team task skills. An organization should also consider team task skills to be primary in hiring and training policies to improve software project performance.