Software Project Management - Gap between Theory and Practice

Proper management of software projects is crucial in preventing budget overruns, schedule slips, requirements creep, and other causes of project failure. The skills required for successfully managing software development projects, however, come with practical experience and rigorous training. Both the industry and the academia, therefore, need to work in unison. A differential in the skill set emphasized in the academia and the skill set required by the industry may lead to sub-optimal results. This research tries to identify the extent of the gap between the theory and practice of software project management by focusing on the landscape of universities and software development companies in Pakistan. The content of software project management-related courses offered by top universities in Pakistan is analysed to determine a set of subtopics emphasized by the academia. This set of subtopics is then used to design and, later, conduct an online survey of employees of various Pakistani software houses to gauge the differential in emphasis. Survey results indicate that a close mapping exists between what is being taught in the academia and what is required by the software development industry implying that this gap is not wide in the context of Pakistan.