Uncertainty in Software Development Projects: A Review of Causes, Types, Challenges, and Future Research Directions

Mingqi Zhang; Maxwell Fordjour Antwi-Afari; Chonghui Wang; Weihao Sun; Saeed Reza Mohandes; Sulemana Fatoama Abdulai

doi:10.3390/systems13080650

Uncertainty in Software Development Projects: A Review of Causes, Types, Challenges, and Future Research Directions

Mingqi Zhang
, Maxwell Fordjour Antwi-Afari
, Chonghui Wang
, Weihao Sun
, Saeed Reza Mohandes
, Sulemana Fatoama Abdulai

Department of Civil Engineering and Management, School of Engineering, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK; (C.C.)
Department of Construction and Real Estate, School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China
Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong SAR, China

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6 Citations (SciVal)

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Abstract

In a rapidly evolving business landscape, the success of software development (SD) projects is increasingly impacted by uncertainty, which poses significant challenges for project managers. Despite the known influence of uncertainty on project outcomes, its types, causes, and challenges in software remain inadequately understood. This review conducts a systematic analysis of previous related SD projects and related research to clarify these aspects, ultimately identifying key research gaps and proposing future research directions. By adopting a mixed-methods review that integrates scientometric analysis and systematic review methods, this study analysed 60 articles from the Scopus database. The results reported nine causes, six types, and nine challenges associated with uncertainty in SD to provide insights for project managers and researchers in understanding and managing uncertainty more effectively. Additionally, this study proposes four areas for further research to enhance focus and innovation in SD project management.

Original language	English
Article number	650
Number of pages	31
Journal	Systems
Volume	13
Issue number	8
Early online date	1 Aug 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/systems13080650
Publication status	Published - Aug 2025

Bibliographical note

Copyright © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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10.3390/systems13080650Licence: CC BY 4.0

Uncertainty in Software Development Projects
Copyright © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Final published version, 1.54 MBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

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title = "Uncertainty in Software Development Projects: A Review of Causes, Types, Challenges, and Future Research Directions",

abstract = "In a rapidly evolving business landscape, the success of software development (SD) projects is increasingly impacted by uncertainty, which poses significant challenges for project managers. Despite the known influence of uncertainty on project outcomes, its types, causes, and challenges in software remain inadequately understood. This review conducts a systematic analysis of previous related SD projects and related research to clarify these aspects, ultimately identifying key research gaps and proposing future research directions. By adopting a mixed-methods review that integrates scientometric analysis and systematic review methods, this study analysed 60 articles from the Scopus database. The results reported nine causes, six types, and nine challenges associated with uncertainty in SD to provide insights for project managers and researchers in understanding and managing uncertainty more effectively. Additionally, this study proposes four areas for further research to enhance focus and innovation in SD project management.",

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year = "2025",

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AU - Zhang, Mingqi

AU - Antwi-Afari, Maxwell Fordjour

AU - Wang, Chonghui

AU - Sun, Weihao

AU - Mohandes, Saeed Reza

AU - Abdulai, Sulemana Fatoama

N1 - Copyright © 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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N2 - In a rapidly evolving business landscape, the success of software development (SD) projects is increasingly impacted by uncertainty, which poses significant challenges for project managers. Despite the known influence of uncertainty on project outcomes, its types, causes, and challenges in software remain inadequately understood. This review conducts a systematic analysis of previous related SD projects and related research to clarify these aspects, ultimately identifying key research gaps and proposing future research directions. By adopting a mixed-methods review that integrates scientometric analysis and systematic review methods, this study analysed 60 articles from the Scopus database. The results reported nine causes, six types, and nine challenges associated with uncertainty in SD to provide insights for project managers and researchers in understanding and managing uncertainty more effectively. Additionally, this study proposes four areas for further research to enhance focus and innovation in SD project management.

AB - In a rapidly evolving business landscape, the success of software development (SD) projects is increasingly impacted by uncertainty, which poses significant challenges for project managers. Despite the known influence of uncertainty on project outcomes, its types, causes, and challenges in software remain inadequately understood. This review conducts a systematic analysis of previous related SD projects and related research to clarify these aspects, ultimately identifying key research gaps and proposing future research directions. By adopting a mixed-methods review that integrates scientometric analysis and systematic review methods, this study analysed 60 articles from the Scopus database. The results reported nine causes, six types, and nine challenges associated with uncertainty in SD to provide insights for project managers and researchers in understanding and managing uncertainty more effectively. Additionally, this study proposes four areas for further research to enhance focus and innovation in SD project management.

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Uncertainty in Software Development Projects: A Review of Causes, Types, Challenges, and Future Research Directions

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