  An individual decision-making behavior is heavily influenced by and adapted
to external environmental factors. Given that software development is a
human-centered activity, individual decision-making behavior may affect the
software project quality. Although environmental factors affecting
decision-making behavior in software projects have been identified in prior
literature, there is not yet an objective and a full taxonomy of these factors.
Thus, it is not trivial to manage these complex and diverse factors. To address
this deficiency, we first design a semantic similarity algorithm between words
by utilizing the synonymy and hypernymy relationships in WordNet. Further, we
propose a method to measure semantic similarity between phrases and apply it
into k-means clustering algorithm to group these factors. Subsequently, we
obtain a taxonomy of the environmental factors affecting individual
decision-making behavior in software projects, which includes eleven broad
categories, each containing two to five sub-categories. The taxonomy presented
herein is obtained by an objective method, and quite comprehensive, with
appropriate references provided. The taxonomy holds significant value for
researchers and practitioners; it can help them to better understand the major
aspects of environmental factors, also to predict and guide the behavior of
individuals during decision making towards a successful completion of software
projects.
