Title: Tapping the human cloud for successful delivery of software projects

Authors: Subramani Ramakrishnan; V. Badrinath; S.C. Anushan Sivasundaram

Addresses: Faculty of Management Studies, Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education, Noorul Islam University, Kumaracoil – 629-180, India ' School of Management, Sastra University, Thanjavur – 613-401, India ' School of Management, Sastra University, Thanjavur – 613-401, India

Abstract: In the Indian IT industry, Gen Y is a major share of the workforce, and this year (2014) marks the entry of Gen Z (born in mid 90s) in the workforce. Gen Z demand utmost flexibility at work - be it the technology, nature of work, or even workplace. This would mean that employee in the near future will not be tied to traditional office space; they will be more so looked at as 'cloud' workforce. Human cloud could be as disruptive, and as positive, a phenomenon as the cloud has been on the IT infrastructure (platform, software, services). This study focuses on how this emerging phenomenon of 'human cloud' can be tapped to successfully deliver software projects. The conclusions are based on a detailed survey carried out among 530 engineering college students in India, who were in the final year and on the verge of joining IT Industry. The survey findings held on the key intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors that lead to crowd participation.

Keywords: human cloud; crowdsourcing; motivation; crowd participation; software development; software projects; India.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAIP.2016.080195

International Journal of Advanced Intelligence Paradigms, 2016 Vol.8 No.4, pp.425 - 436

Received: 25 Nov 2014
Accepted: 16 May 2015
Published online: 07 Nov 2016 *

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