Human resources allocation criteria in software development projects

Human resource allocation is one of the main tasks in software projects, they are determinant in the project quality and success. In this context, this paper presents a qualitative research about human resource allocation conducted in seven companies of different sizes and organizational contexts. The objective of this research is to identify the criteria used by managers to perform the allocation. Data collection was conducted through semi-structured interviews and then the Constant Comparison Method was used for data analysis. The main results of this study is a: (i) a set of allocation strategies organized according to the scenarios in which they occurred, and (ii) the external factors that may influence the development of the project.