Differential and Depreciation Effects of Shared Experience: Evidence from Software Projects

Shared experience (i.e., experience working together) among project team members is known to affect a project team's performance. Yet, little is known of whether the effects of shared experience homogeneous. We empirically find that the effects of shared experience on a project's performance vary by the outcome of shared experience (e.g., successful vs. unsuccessful) as well as project team role (e.g., project managers vs. non-managers) in the context of software development. Moreover, we find the effects of shared experience depreciate over time. Our study has a theoretical contribution by showing differential and depreciation effects of shared experience. It also has practical implications on the project staffing problem.