Conflict Measurement In Software Development: A Systematic Literature Mapping

Conflicts permeate the software development life cycle (SDLC), where there is high interaction between team members and other stakeholders. Persons have different experiences, values, opinions, and ways of carrying out tasks, which can lead to disagreements. Conflict measurements can be used to understand and evaluate the presence of conflicts in each target audience and to manage and mitigate their impacts. Several papers have already been published on conflict measurement in the SDLC, but there is no systematic literature mapping (SLM) or systematic literature review (SLR). This paper takes the first step by conducting an SLM that examines 34 studies addressing conflict measurement in the SDLC, published between 2018 and 2023. Most studies relate conflicts to other variables to understand their correlation and establish ways to prevent and mitigate conflicts; others, also representative, propose new algorithms for identifying conflicts. The limitations of the existing studies include restricted generalizability, methodological flaws, and technical and data issues. For future work, we consider the need for continuity in research, refining and testing the existing studies across diverse contexts, and using different analytical and hybrid approaches, besides considering Artificial Intelligence for conflict prediction.