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http://soc.sagepub.com/ Working at Webboyz: An Analysis of Control Over the Software Development Labour Process
Rowena Barrett Sociology 2004 38: 777 DOI: 10.1177/0038038504045864 The online version of this article can be found at: http://soc.sagepub.com/content/38/4/777

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Sociology
Copyright 2004 BSA Publications Ltd Volume 38(4): 777794 DOI: 10.1177/0038038504045864 SAGE Publications London,Thousand Oaks, New Delhi

Working at Webboyz: An Analysis of Control over the Software Development Labour Process
I

Rowena Barrett
Monash University, Australia

A B S T R AC T

This article explores how management constructs strategies to control the labour process of software development, through a case study of a small Australian software development company, Webboyz Pty Ltd.1 This rm employs mainly young, male software developers to develop internet tools and e-commerce software and solutions for different segments of the local and international software market. Distinguishing between primary and secondary software products, and their associated production processes, provides a way of analysing the organization and control of software development work. The case study of Webboyz reveals how management strategies to control the labour process of software development are inuenced by the type of product being developed and the timing in the products development lifecycle as well as the type of workers developing the software product.
K E Y WO R D S

Australia / case study / control / labour process theory / management strategy / software development

Introduction
eirne et al. (1998: 142) suggest that, the nature of the work performed in producing software should be a matter of great curiosity to labour process analysis. This is the case as software developers are often seen as typical knowledge workers (Reich, 1991; Scarbrough, 1999) and central to the

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information age. However, the speed of IT innovation means there is a general lack of understanding about IT and how it works, as the wonderment at the technology seems to have the effect of suspending peoples critical faculties! (Morgan and Sayer, 1988: 37). The high drama surrounding the IT industry obscures much of the reality of software development work and its management. The effect is that we know little about the process of developing software and this has implications for analysing managerial strategies of control. The aim of this article, which is part of a larger body of work (see Barrett, 2000, 2001a, 2001b, 2004 forthcoming), is to rectify this situation through a case study of Webboyz, a small Australian internet software rm. The case study begins with a review of the rms historical development to facilitate an understanding of how the rm has grown and changed over time and to provide insights into the Webboyz culture and business strategy. The nature of the Webboyz people and the primary software products they create are then outlined. Then by linking Storeys (1985) notion of layers of control and Hymans (1987) no one best way of strategy to a modied version of Friedmans (1977, 1984) direct control and responsible autonomy dichotomy, I demonstrate the range of managerial strategies for controlling the labour process at Webboyz. In particular, I show how management uses various strategies separately and simultaneously to control the labour process of developing primary software products depending on stage in the products development and the nature of the people developing the products. Finally, an examination of employees qualications, expectations of their work and response to management strategy shows the effectiveness of managements strategy. In essence, this article and the case study of Webboyz begin the process of dispelling some of the mythology surrounding the management of software development work and workers.

Demystifying the Labour Process of Software Development

Software Development and Developers
Software development is generally seen as a new occupation despite Phil Krafts description of software developers nearly a quarter of a century ago as modern day wizards who have materialised out of the future, charting unknown paths rather than following old ones (Kraft, 1979: 3). Software developers (or computer programmers) produce software, which is a uniquely designed, highly structured set of assertions, instructions and decisions all of which must be negotiated, codied, analysed for consistency and validated for effectiveness in a constantly changing environment (Weber, 1997: 37). Another ageless quote from Kraft points to the importance of software developers:
[they] are responsible for a computers day to day operation they provide the computer with a detailed sequence of operating instructions without these

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human-entered instructions the program the most advanced computers would sit dumb and idle and useless. (Kraft, 1979: 1)

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The popular (and negative) stereotype of people who work on computers as geeks died with the growth of the internet and the dot.com boom. Software developers joined the ranks of the international bright young things eschewing traditional working lives and corporate ladders as they set about making their rst million on a funky e-dream (Castles, 2002). In Australia, articles by Connors (1998) in the Australian Financial Reviews glossy monthly magazine, Hornery (1998) in the Sydney Morning Herald, Turner (2001) in the Australian Financial Reviews Boss magazine and Way (1999) in the Business Review Weekly peddled this view of IT workers. Even the April 2000 tech wreck was used as a way of highlighting this lifestyle: one article reporting how Australian internet workers personal spending has become more circumspect with weekly restaurant bills falling to less than A$150 (Nicholas, 2001). This glamorously nerdy social identity promoted by the popular (business) press is important, as identity is determined by comparison with others (du Gay, 1996; Jenkins, 1996). However, it is not necessarily accurate or reective of the reality of software programming and differentiating between primary and secondary software products helps demonstrate this. A primary software product is developed by an individual or software rm and sold as packaged software, often for further development (Brady, 1992; Carmel and Sawyer, 1998; Sharpe, 1998). Word processing packages, operating systems and development tools are all examples of primary, packaged software products. Primary products, which are driven by the needs of new technology, are new products and the development process can be likened to an art: code is written without any rigorous planning and then hacked to remove bugs and increase functionality (Carmel and Sawyer, 1998; Dub, 1998; Sharpe, 1998). The process differs when developing secondary software products, which are usually custom-built, organizationally specic information systems (IS), such as utility billing systems, human resource information systems and airline reservations systems (Brady, 1992; Carmel and Sawyer, 1998; Sharpe, 1998). By conducting a requirements analysis, developers of secondary software products know the nal requirements of the IS and these system specications determine the shape and scope of the nal product. In the waterfall process (Brady, 1992) the design, programming and testing parameters are clearly specied in advance by the clients requirements. Both structured programming techniques, which stress orderliness, simplicity and economical use of standard languages and/or code, and CASE (Computer Aided Software Engineering) tools, which automate coding and testing tasks, can be applied regardless of whether primary or secondary software is being created. While these developments might be taken as evidence of deskilling, the linear trend of deskilling proposed by labour process theorists (Braverman, 1974; Burawoy, 1979, 1985; Edwards, 1979) cannot be taken as absolute because of the interactions between the dynamics of technological

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innovation and changing patterns of use (Morgan and Sayer, 1988; Quintas, 1994). To understand the diversity of management strategies to control the software development labour process we can take Storey (1985) and Hymans (1987) approaches together. Storeys layers of control point to how management separately and simultaneously use different control strategies. Storey (1985: 198) argues that these interpenetrating layers of control reinforce and substitute for each other as one or more becomes weak, decayed or fully untenable. Further, uidity exists between these controls as they are shaped by the interplay between managerial action at more than one level and worker action (p. 199). This suggests that managements ability to achieve and sustain control is a process of continual experimentation. This links to Hymans approach to control where he emphasizes the inevitable failure of management strategy. For Hyman (1987: 30) there is no one best way of managing only different routes to partial failure. Together the approaches taken by Storey and Hyman emphasize the importance of contradiction and dialectics in understanding the complexity of the relationship between structure and agency. By modifying Friedmans (1977, 1984) direct control and responsible autonomy as two directions towards which managers can move, rather than two pre-dened states between which managers can choose (1984: 3), how management constructs these strategies can be shown. This is done in the case study where the relationship between theory and practice can be clearly seen. Further, the dialectical dynamics of both environmental structure and human agency is considered by examining the rms history, structure, overall business strategy, products, production processes, people and their actions. In the analysis, I show how management uses a variety of strategies to control the labour process of software development and therefore why it is unnecessary to counterpose one specic form of control against another.

Method
The case study of Webboyz explores the multi-layered nature of management control strategies. The case study is constructed from 13 semi-structured interviews (Fontana and Frey, 2000; Lee, 1999) with software workers and managers (see Table 1 for the list of interviews). Interviewees were chosen not necessarily [for] representativeness [but for] the opportunity to learn (Stake, 2000: 447), and therefore questions to employees covered their background, their work, their expectations of that work and views about the rms management. Where interviewees held particular positions, (i.e. Chief Executive Ofcer (CEO), Finance Manager, General Manager (GM), or Project Manager) then more specic, in-depth questions were asked in regard to those areas. Interviews sought to understand working in the rm from the interviewees perspective (Lee et al., 1999) and to under-

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Table 1 Interviews at Webboyz Management CEO (3) Managing Director General Manager Finance Manager Employees Project Manager 1 Employee 1 Employee 2 Employee 3 Employee 4 Employee 5 Employee 6

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stand how and why he or she comes to have this particular perspective (King, 1994: 14). Consistent with the characteristics of qualitative research outlined by Lee et al., the interviews were exible in their format: all interviewees were asked a core set of questions. However, their order varied as the conversation unfolded. Themes were identified and analysed across the interviews (Huberman and Miles, 1994; Lee et al., 1999).

The Webboyz Story

Webboyz, a small, publicly listed Australian company developing internet tools and e-commerce software and solutions, was created at the CEOs kitchen table in June 1994. A web-authoring tool marketed under the brand name CoolCat launched Webboyz. Introduced when only about 10,000 web pages existed on the internet, the products success was attributed to the webs newness, the lack of alternative products geared for both entry-level and professional web page designers, and the on-line selling of the product. In the rst year, revenue grew by 30 percent a month. In July 1995, the business was incorporated and in September 1995, Webboyz moved out of the CEOs house and into an ofce, which barely accommodated the 25 people who worked there by December 1995. In January 1996, Webboyz moved to an ofce in Melbournes eastern suburbs. In February 1996, when the worlds rst JAVA applet (a development tool called a WebWidget used to animate web pages) was created, 80 people were employed. In October 1996, amidst much publicity, Webboyz listed on the ASX, becoming the rst Australian public internet software company.2 Shares opened at A$0.75 and rose to A$1.50 before dropping back to trade around A$0.20. Around A$4 million was raised by the listing. The CEO became the majority shareholder with 50 million (70%) shares.3 However, the necessity for doing things more conservatively and conventionally (CEO) following listing conicted with the CEOs view of how he hoped to do business and as a result some of the enthusiasm and the passion died (CEO).

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Black Thursday and the Onset of the Months of Darkness

By December 1996, 130 people worked at Webboyz and of those 50 were casual employees. The increase in staff numbers was a result of the continuous hiring required for the WebWidgets development strategy. The chaos created by this strategy (see later) was one reason for the Black Thursday downsizing, when one day in February 1997 all 50 casuals, plus another 30 full-time employees, were let go:
there was an upstairs and a downstairs in this hotel and you walked in the front door and they said you go downstairs and you go upstairs. So all the people upstairs were in and the others were out. (Employee 2)

Twenty-six of the 30 full-timers had been with the company for less than six weeks but within the month, 24 of them had better and higher paying jobs (CEO). Such a result was indicative of not only the skill shortages in this industry and nature of the labour market at this time, but also the relatively privileged position of Webboyz employees within it. As an innovative rm, others in the industry saw Webboyz as having employed talent, particularly JAVA programmers, worthy of being snapped up. After the downsizing exercise, the remaining 50 staff were organized into teams. The WebWidgets strategy was discontinued and two teams of programmers were created: one to concentrate on the CoolCat product and the other to focus on e-commerce. In the months of darkness that followed, there was no fun and we just worked our arse off for six months, eight months, it turned into nine months before money eventually came in (Employee 1).

Strategic Change
During 1997 the development of E-Sell, a JAVA-based web commerce system, heralded a change in Webboyz strategy from focusing solely on software products for individuals to e-commerce software and solutions for business. This strategic shift acknowledged the speed of change and dynamism of the internet as well as the opportunities offered by its growth. In addition, this change capitalized on the in-house expertise in internet e-commerce, gained through a process of trial and error of marketing and distributing software products on-line. By mid-1997 pursuit of this line of business saw the recruitment of new senior managers (or suits as they were known), in addition to changes in the rms location, layout and vibe. The ofce moved from the Melbourne suburbs to the 25th oor of a central Melbourne ofce block. The layout was arranged so the suits and administrators occupied one side of the oor space while the customer support and CoolCat and E-Sell development teams were on the other side. The oor was divided by the buildings lift shafts and a large open area housing the pool table, pinball machine, couches, magazines and snack dispensers. The differences between the two sides were quite stark. The suits side had a corporate look and feel: glass-walled ofces, owers in recep-

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tion, tidy desks and a quiet work environment. But on the development side there were hastily thrown-up partitions making ofces, piles of papers around the place, posters and pages from magazines stuck to walls, messy desks, loud music, etc. As the GM said of that side of the building, it looks like we moved in last week when weve been here for a year and a half you know! Despite accolades from the on-line community for the CoolCat products and a number of world rsts in terms of JAVA software development, the nancial performance of the company was patchy. In December 1998 the CEO explained Webboyz poor nancial performance as were in a market thats emerging where no ones making a prot. Webboyz rst operating prot after tax since the listing was only announced in June 1999. The rms history and trajectory of development form part of the structures within which managerial and employee action took place. Webboyz creation, rapid growth and public listing with its attendant problems highlighted the relatively precarious position of the rm and its employees. At the same time, the Webboyz story, the rollercoaster ride that the core CoolCat team members underwent and the internet-related social identity that was being created by the media more generally, acted to unify people within the rm. As we will see, this affected how employees engaged with their work and responded to management strategies to control the labour process.

The Webboyz People and Products

When the research was conducted in November and December 1998, 23 people worked at Webboyz.4 The staff included the CEO, MD, GM, Finance Manager, two project managers, four part-time administrative staff, two full-time and three part-time customer support staff and eight software developers. The majority of employees were young about 25 years old, the same age as the CEO. Only three women worked at Webboyz: two were part-time administrative staff and one worked part time in customer support. Two developers worked in the E-Sell and special projects development team, lead by the CEO, and the other six worked with the two project managers in the CoolCat development team. The internet inspired the creation, continual development and subsequent sales and distribution of the majority of the Webboyz products. In the CoolCat product family were six versions of CoolCat Expert plus CoolCat Wiz and CoolCat Kid. CoolCat Experts advantage was that the user did not require knowledge of HTML (Hyper Text Mark-up Language) or JAVA code and the products operation was not dependent on any particular companys hardware/software. The free 24-hour customer support, CoolCat chat room, on-line newsletter and FAQs (frequently asked questions) on Webboyz home page worked to integrate the user community into the products continuing development As a primary software product CoolCats development process resembled hacking with an iterative process of writing code, which was then tested on

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the internet with a group of users. These testers made suggestions that were incorporated into the product where possible: in essence these suggestions acted as post-hoc parameters. The example of Microsofts tiger teams, which were set up to create DOS, can be used to loosely portray the workings of the CoolCat team. Like CoolCat, DOS was a primary, packaged software product developed using the hacking process. The Microkids youthful nerdy boys out of a handful of elite American academic institutions worked as self-directing teams with managers who acted as mentors or coaches inspir(ing) rather than og(ing) (Sharpe, 1998: 367). Microsoft institutionalized the hacking culture by integrating individual expertise within a collective framework (Scarbrough, 1999: 14). However, these teams also had a discipline imposed upon them by the daily build: a daily assembly and test run of the software, which was an iterative process of building more functions into a growing base of software (Sharpe, 1998). At Webboyz it was more like synch and stabilize, which Cusumano and Selby (1996: 49) describe as continually synchronis(ing) what people are doing as individuals and as members of different teams, and periodically stabilis(ing) the product in increments. The hacking software development process was also evident in the creation of the WebWidgets. These were small, individual programs that plugged into the core CoolCat program. The initial strategy for developing WebWidgets was to take a programmer, sit them down in front of a computer and say come up with a product and then well sell it through our internet distribution channel (CEO). The parameters for each program were 5,00010,000 lines of JAVA code and taking no longer than 12 weeks to write. Staff suggestions for WebWidgets were rewarded with an age-related electronic toy (Playstation, Gameboy, etc.), while users who made suggestions via the internet were rewarded with a t-shirt, acknowledged on the nal program and sent a free copy. This strategy caused organizational chaos as too many developers did their own thing and that could not be effectively managed. Moreover, the parameters were unrealistic, as was the US$50,000 per month sales target. Although the formal WebWidget strategy was discontinued, users and staff still made suggestions for new ones. Developers were allowed to create new WebWidgets if management saw some commercial opportunity. As one of the Project Managers explained:
If any of the guys has a good idea basically we let them do it if they havent got anything else to do. A good example is one of the guys wanted to do some sort of graphics orientated program and hes got these mathematical algorithms that generate random organic tileable backgrounds. That has been turned into a product that weve said well run with and weve wrapped another product around it. All the email addresses we collect from the distribution of this product we use for direct marketing to sell our other products. So it helps us in the end because we can commercialise those ideas that come out of our development team all with no money spent at all, apart from the developers time.

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WebWidgets were used by management as a low-cost means of forging relationships with commercial partners, users and employees: they opened up commercial opportunities and motivated employees to extend their skills, beneting the individual and the organization.

How Management Constructs Control

We can use Friedmans (1977, 1984) responsible autonomy and direct control dichotomy as a starting point for explaining managements strategy to control the software development labour process. However, Friedmans (1977) conceptualization of autonomy is very broad as the status, authority and responsibility could apply to a number of levels: autonomy, where individuals have the freedom to set goals and the means to pursue them, could be exercised at the level of the organization (strategic) or the task (technical). Such an argument utilizes the study of industrial R&D labs by Bailyn (1985) where she distinguishes between strategic autonomy (the freedom to set ones own research agenda) and operational autonomy (the freedom, once a problem has been set, to attack it by means determined by oneself, within given resource constraints). Scarbroughs (1999: 11) view that knowledge workers derive their power and values from occupationally based knowledge communities suggests that technical autonomy is a more apt description than responsible autonomy, where employees with high levels of skill or technical knowledge possess some degree of control and discretion over the software development process. Rather than lying at some point in the continuum between Friedmans responsible autonomy and direct control, technical autonomy and strategic autonomy can instead be seen as subsets of responsible autonomy, reecting Storeys (1985) idea of levels of control. Another subset of responsible autonomy can be identied in Voss-Dahms (2001) study of IT workers in eight German companies, where she shows that autonomous time management (time autonomy) is a management strategy for deepening employee commitment through practices that feed and serve the demand for autonomy and by creating a work environment in which individual development is fostered and encouraged. Therefore I argue that autonomy, where employees have the freedom to set goals and the means to pursue them, can be exercised at the level of the organization (strategic autonomy), over the task (technical autonomy) and at the individual level (time autonomy). Braverman (1974) and Scarbroughs (1999) argument that management can afford to use particular strategies of control giving autonomy to those employees who occupy a privileged position in the product lifecycle, suggests that these strategies can be used at different times in the production process or simultaneously: for example, the strategies of time and technical autonomy can be used together as employees are disciplined by their own sense of self (see ODoherty and Willmott, 2001). At the same time, however, management can also use direct control. For example, the setting of deadlines can act as a form of direct control but

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employees are still able to autonomously manage their time within the context of that deadline and use their technical autonomy to create the best product within that timeframe. Indeed, the parameters of a software development project can also act as a form of direct control but although developers must work within those parameters, technical autonomy can be used as workers decide the best method to achieve the desired outcome. This is the case as a strategy of direct control only would be counter productive in situations where the stability of creative and expert labour is required. Friedmans (1984: 18) contention that a rms position on the continuum will change as competitive conditions in product and labour markets and worker reactions force managers to change their strategy has implications for strategies to control the software development labour process. In developing software the choice of strategy is inuenced by the type of product being developed and the timing in the products development lifecycle as well as the type of worker employed. At Webboyz the management strategy combines elements of technical autonomy, time autonomy and direct control.

Technical Autonomy
Management used technical autonomy when they allowed employees to write the best possible product using their skills and expertise. One of the CoolCat developers described this as:
It is almost like I know what Im supposed to do and I know what [Project Manager] wants me to do and usually it is only when something comes up that we get to formally discuss it. It is such a small working team, that we just discuss it from day to day whats going on and we are all aware of it, so we just sort of do it. (Employee 3)

This was possible as all programmers had some form of post-secondary qualication in computing or technology. In addition, they also had drive, as this was explicit in their selection for employment, as the CEO made clear:
When we recruit people what we look for is not so much what brains theyve got or how smart they are or anything like that, its how passionate are they about this area. Is this something that means more to them than just a job? Is this really where they want their life to be and are they smart enough to cope if we step back and say heres a broad picture of what we want you to do go away and ll in the details yourself?

The CoolCat project manager argued that the nature of the software developers and the work they did made technical autonomy a feasible management strategy:
when it comes down to it, the guys own their job. They are accountable for what they do, and they can directly see a correlation between what they are actually creating things that people are using all around the world . Thats why you rock up to work in shorts and you start work when you want to, within reason. The guys

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just work until they get their stuff done. If theyre stufng around I might say hey listen youve been stufng around or I wont even say that, Ill just say get this thing done. So they just lift it up a few notches or whatever. (Project Manager 1)

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As a result the project manager described his role as herding cats!

Time Autonomy
Time autonomy was also a strategy management used to allow employees to develop their ideas for creating the best possible product. As one developer explained, this was underpinned by trust: He trusts me working from home and I get a very strong sense of responsibility from that (Employee 5). This strategy was possible as Webboyz employees were involved with their job. As one employee put it:
Dealing with computers, you get absorbed and obsessed so you have problems to deal with and things to make and if youre on a roll you just keep going and then you forget youve got an appointment to do something else and youve got to arrange your postal redirection because youve just moved or youve got to you know, just things in your life that go by the way-side. (Employee 2)

For him time autonomy meant that if you feel like you are working too much you feel justied in saying Im going to take a day off or something (Employee 2). This time autonomy was interpreted differently by another developer who described his hours as:
I get here something like 3 oclock because I sleep in. I dont feel ashamed about that, I tell everyone because last Friday I worked until 12. Lets say last week, in fact, I stayed here until 2 oclock in the morning working, seriously, working, because I enjoy it. I cant go back home and sleep. There is nothing on TV so I might as well work. (Employee 5)

At Webboyz, the rms history and the niche the rm occupied in the product market impacted on how employees felt about their jobs. The project manager echoed this sentiment when he said:
This job is our life, you know. Its a very personal commitment to what we do. Especially from a developers point of view, the products success is directly attributable to what you put into it and its like a baby, you know. Its like this is our baby and weve been working for three years and wed kill ourselves to get it done. And all of our girlfriends or ex-girlfriends or ex-communicated girlfriends are all in chorus saying Webboyz just screws these guys lives because they live it, and it is, that is the style.

Direct Control
Storeys layers were also evident in the rms requirement that developers incorporated user suggestions into the product wherever possible and this could be checked against the email logs. Another way in which direct control was

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exercised was through the setting of product release dates. As one employee explained, When we released CoolCat 4.0 it was easily 80 hours for a couple of weeks and that was because we had to release the product. So what else can you do? Give up or write a product I suppose? (Employee 3). The CEO also made it clear how deadlines were used as a direct control strategy when he said, generally staff are left to do their own thing and gently steered from time to time. Around deadline time, this changes we get the whip out and start cracking it, and the company becomes a different place. Although deadlines acted as a form of direct control over the development of software products, the strategy of autonomous time management (time autonomy) also allowed employees to choose when they wanted to work in the context of those deadlines.

Worker Responses to Managerial Control

Strategies of time autonomy and technical autonomy were enabled by the discipline of employees social and work identity, which other studies have shown to revolve around the challenge of intrinsically interesting work (Barrett, 2000; Beirne et al., 1998; Friedman, 1990). Because of this, management were able to pay low wages: Webboyz could recruit skilled, but relatively inexperienced young boys keen to get into the industry, who focussed on the technical aspects and personal opportunities of the job (experience, freedom from a dress code, exible hours, access to technology), rather than the pay. Various authors point to this as being a characteristic of the sector as a whole (Beirne et al., 1998; Friedman, 1990). Management and employees knew the salary for Webboyz developers around A$45,000 was not high.5 However, the youth and inexperience of many employees meant they were not overly concerned about this, as one said about his pay: Im not complaining because I am only 23 years old (Employee 3). Employees traded their pay against the type of work they did and the environment in which they worked. As one pointed out: Obviously everyone would like to be paid a lot more, but in terms of what I get, like in terms of the balance, its just perfect (Employee 4). Another employee acknowledged this when he said: I think I could be getting paid more but theres a lot of trade-offs as well. I feel like theres a team and if we can work together we can do a lot of cool stuff (Employee 2). Another employee disclosed that he had turned down a number of higher paying jobs due to the level of control and input that I have into technical things here and the effect they have across the internet (Employee 1). These trade-offs were recognized by the MD when he argued that many people arent paid as well as they would expect to be in an open market, they trade that off against some of the advantages of living in a freewheeling, cutting-edge environment and so on. At the same time management knew employees would leave if the work lost its challenge. This had been the rms experience with some employees who had left earlier in the year:

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They seemed to think that their role just wasnt heading anywhere, they werent being challenged and the offers that they got had chances that they would improve in their skills and that sort of thing . It was more that issue than the salary issue. (Finance Manager)

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Amongst current developers this view was also expressed when they responded to a question about what would make them leave Webboyz: Not being able to do the job Im doing (Employee 4); and [if] my self development wasnt that great (Employee 3). However, the skill shortages at the time meant money was just as likely to entice employees away. Management used an Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) as a cover for low wages: If the share price moves 20 cents north suddenly theyre all rich. The actual annual salary becomes much less of an issue (CEO). Storeys (1985) layers of control were evident in the operation of the ESOP. As shareholders, employees became part owners of the rm and therefore gained some inuence in strategic decision-making (strategic autonomy). However, the Boards (subjective) allocation of shares to employees, as well as the fact that shares were vested for ve years, in reality meant the ESOP was part of a strategy of direct control: the GM made this explicit when he said the purpose of the ESOP was to keep people within the company and give them a stake in the value of the business going forward. Employees were also aware of this, as one made clear when talking about the ESOP: we have to stay here for 5 years to make the most of the shares (Employee 5). Managements strategies meant that exploitation inherent in the process of converting labour power into actual productive labour was obscured. This was evident in this description of how one of the developers felt about his job:
Im in paradise. This is what I always told my parents I am enjoying my life so much because of Webboyz because Im enjoying the job, Im enjoying my work. Even Saturday or Sunday, alright, I would read work related stuff. Im not a nerd, I also go out to watch movies and that sort of thing, but I enjoy it so much that I dont really take it as a job. I take it as part of my life and I do that anyway. Like if Im not getting paid I would still study that sort of thing. I would read it in my leisure time anyway and making it a part of my job I make money from it. So it is a paradise. Heaven. This is exactly what Im feeling. (Employee 5)

Employees were actively engaged in the legitimization of the labour process (Burawoy, 1979). This was apparent in the story one of the customer support employees told (without any irony) about how he won a day off work by coming in one weekend to answer customer emails as part of the customer support teams competition to see who could read and answer the most customer emails in a week!

Concluding Discussion
The purpose of this article is to overcome the fact that little is known about the nature of software development work, its organization, and how the labour

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process is controlled. Analyses of the history of software programming show it is far from being a simple or uniform activity (see for example, Barrett, 2000, 2001a; Beirne et al., 1998; Kraft, 1979; Quintas, 1994; Yourdon, 1979, 1996). In the case study, Storeys (1985: 198) interpenetrating layers of control is drawn upon to develop a less deterministic and restrictive approach to understanding managements strategies to control the labour process and show no one best way (Hyman, 1987) of strategy. The development of Webboyz primary software products resembled the ad hoc process of hacking; meaning employees wrote code and then hacked at it to remove bugs and get results. These results were dened by the employees ability and skill at writing code, the rms commitment to incorporating suggestions made by users into the product, and managements requirement for a commercially viable product and nancial return. Storeys (1985) layers of control could be operationalized by identifying three subsets of Friedmans responsible autonomy strategy: strategic autonomy, technical autonomy and time autonomy. The nal shape and scope of CoolCat and the WebWidgets was dictated by employees skills and therefore at this point management used a strategy of technical autonomy to control the labour process. However, managements requirement of incorporating user suggestions into developing commercially viable products acted as a form of direct control, although technical autonomy was also used to determine how those suggestions were incorporated. Management also used a strategy of time autonomy, which meant employees worked when they wanted as long as they their tasks were completed by the product release deadline. The case study emphasized the dialectical relationship between autonomy and control. In effect, managers, facing the heightened indeterminacy of creative employees labour, walked a tightrope between autonomy and getting protable work done by the deadline. For employees, this necessity of profitability meant autonomy was limited to the use of their skills and their time. Management could have increased protability by routinizing the work, but employees would have left, which would be how they would express their resistance, as the work would no longer t with their social identity. Therefore, to be effective, managements strategy needed to be appropriate for the type of people working at the rm. At Webboyz the developers were young men with some relevant post-secondary qualication, but largely inexperienced and new to the workforce. Qualications were necessary for them to get started, although their passion was equally important. Pay was low because employees valued intrinsically interesting and challenging work more highly than pay at this stage of their career. Any resistance was individualized people left. While none of the employees I spoke to wanted to do this, they still checked the job vacancies and were aware of conditions in the (then buoyant) labour market. The case study highlighted that a variety of management strategies can be used to control the labour process and it is unnecessary to counterpose one specic form of control against another. While Webboyz management got it right at the time this was specic to the rms circumstances and the type of product

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being developed, the timing in the products development lifecycle as well as the type and nature of employees. As one employee explained:
Software development is like oil exploration they give you money every week and you have to create a product. But it may never be done because you may suddenly leave, which ends all the ideas and design as we dont have a habit of keeping documentation on design. So there is a risk to the company that one day youll go and take away all your ideas! (Employee 5)

However, the relatively privileged position of software developers in the labour market is precisely that relative as capitalism, and its process of uneven development, constantly creates and undermines such positions within the labour market. The fate of so many internet rms and IT workers following the April 2000 global tech wreck is testament to this: it has been estimated that more than 75,000 workers in America and 10,000 plus in Australia lost their jobs following the downward correction to stock prices, while hundreds of IT and IT-related rms have disappeared, merged or morphed into new businesses (Connors, 2001; Williams, 2001). The case study, therefore, tells us that the relative importance of the elements of managements different strategies to control the labour process of software development will vary over time and that there is no one best way. In so doing the case study also begins to demystify how, and by whom, software is developed as well as how management constructs strategies to control the labour process. The end result is that we start to see that although software developers may be future leaders of tomorrow (e-mag, 2002) they are also workers just like the rest of us: they are subject to management control but they also have the ability to inuence how that control is constructed and applied and this is dependent on who they think they are, what they are developing and the specic historical and competitive circumstances of where they work.

Notes
1 2 3 4 The name of the company and its products has been changed to adhere to condentiality requirements. This listing on the ASX occurred via a backdoor listing through a reverse takeover of an existing listed (non-IT related) business. The CEO became eligible to sell his shares two years after the ASX listing. By the middle of 2000 Webboyz employed 1100 people but in 2002 there were only three. While the story of how this came to be is interesting, it does not impact on the analysis in this article and therefore can be the subject of another paper! In Australia average starting salaries for graduate programmers/analysts are around A$40,000; however salaries rise rapidly for individuals with 1218 months experience. The 2000 Australian Computer Society/APESMA remuneration survey (Australian Computer Society, 2000) showed that the average

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package for programmer/analysts was A$65,436, and the average package for all IT professionals was A$90,108.

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Voss-Dahm, D. (2001) Work Intensification through Introduction of an Autonomous Time Management Lessons from IT Companies in Germany, paper presented at the Work Employment and Society Conference, University of Nottingham, 1113 Sept. 2001. Way, N. (1999) IT culture: Taming of the IT shrew, Business Review Weekly 23 July: 7680. Webboyz (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001) Annual Reports. Weber, H. (ed.) (1997) The Software Factory Challenge. Amsterdam: IOS Press. Williams, P. (2001) Life in Layoff Land: Casualties of the New Economy, The Australian Financial Review Weekend 1920 May: 213. Yourdon, E. (ed.) (1979) Classics of Software Engineering. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Yourdon Press, Prentice Hall. Yourdon, E. (1996) Rise and Resurrection of the American Programmer. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Yourdon Press, Prentice Hall.

Rowena Barrett
Is Associate Professor in the Department of Management, Monash University (Gippsland Campus) and Director of the Family and Small Business Research Unit at Monash. This position reects her interest in critical research on small business, particularly work and employment aspects. The data in this article was collected as part of Rowenas PhD research (awarded 2001), while the theoretical framework developed in that PhD was published in Work, Employment and Society. This framework will also link contributed chapters to the book Software Work and Workers: A Labour Process Analysis which Rowena is editing for the Routledge Research in Employment Relations series in 2004. Address: Director, Family and Small Business Research Unit, Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, Churchill,Victoria, 3842, Australia. E-mail: Rowena.Barrett@BusEco.monash.edu.au

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