Client-focused software development: cooperation, control and resistance in a high-skill service triangle

Abstract We present a comparative case study of software development teams in 14 firms, based on 50 semi-structured interviews with 39 people, plus non-participant observation. Our theory proposes that an inherent contradiction of labour management—conflicting pressures to empower workers (to enhance capabilities) and to control workers (to ensure labour discipline)—becomes refracted in distinct ways through the service triangle between customers, managers, and workers. We ask how do software managers deal with competing pressures to simultaneously (1) generate high-quality, creative output, (2) ensure efficiency and workforce discipline, and (3) mediate between clients and workers? Most managers in our study primarily focused on empowering their software developers while the latter experienced client attempts to establish detailed control of their work. In these cases, the managers attempted to control the clients by buffering developers from client demands or pushing back against them.