Linking Cyclicality and Product Quality

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Sosa, Manuel E.; Mihm, Juergen; Browning, Tyson R.
• 署名单位: INSEAD Business School; INSEAD Business School; Texas Christian University
• 刊物名称: M&SOM-MANUFACTURING & SERVICE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1523-4614
• DOI: 10.1287/msom.2013.0432
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 473-491
• 关键词: product architecture; cycles; modularity; iterative problem solving; defects

摘要

This paper examines the impact of architectural decisions on the level of defects in a product. We view products as collections of components linked together to work as an integrated whole. Previous work has established modularity (how decoupled a component is from other product components) as a critical determinant of defects, and we confirm its importance. Yet our study also provides empirical evidence for a relationship between product quality and cyclicality (the extent to which a component depends on itself via other product components). We find cyclicality to be a determinant of quality that is distinct from, and no less important than, modularity. Extending this main result, we show how the cyclicality quality relationship is affected by the centrality of a component in a cycle and the distribution of a cycle across product modules. These findings, which are based on an analysis of open source software development projects, have implications for the study and design of complex systems.