The purpose of this work is to suggest an approach for holistical improvement of software development endeavor performance. The insights are a theory for mapping the key performance drivers of a software development system holistically, including the human centric factors that are involved in knowledge work, and a method for applying the theory in practice via a monitoring Instrument with case studies. The findings support that the theory complemented with the Instrument does provide holistic insights on a software development endeavor, reveals performance impediments and allows performance improvement efforts to be concentrated on the key performance drivers, i.e. where waste causes most performance decline. However further research is required for fine-tuning the Instrument for optimal performance indications. Suggestions for future work include an Instrument result coverage analysis and research on framework for quicker and easier analysis for more practical usage. Nevertheless, organizations can utilize the theory and the Instrument on as-is basis for improving software development performance without further research. The originality and value of this Thesis is centered on challenging the application of traditional management with its methods in software development endeavors and suggesting a new method for gaining higher production performance.
