TY - JOUR
T1 - Uncertainty in Software Development Projects: A Review of Causes, Types, Challenges, and Future Research Directions
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/).
PY - 2025/8
Y1 - 2025/8
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.
UR - https://www.mdpi.com/2079-8954/13/8/650
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105014436181&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/systems13080650
DO - 10.3390/systems13080650
M3 - Article
SN - 2079-8954
VL - 13
JO - Systems
JF - Systems
IS - 8
M1 - 650
ER -