Int. J. Manufacturing Technology and Management, Vol. 28, Nos. 4/5/6, 2014 167 Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Creation and evaluation of software teams – a social approach Surayne Torres*, Yadenis Piñero and Pedro Y. Piñero Laboratorio de Investigaciones en Gestión de Proyectos, Universidad de las Ciencias Informáticas (UCI), Carretera de San Antonio de los Baños, Km 2 ½, Torrens, La Habana, Cuba Email: storres@uci.cu Email: yadenispinero@gmail.com Email: ppp@uci.cu *Corresponding author Luiz Fernando Capretz Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Western University, N6A5B9, London, Ontario, Canada Email: lcapretz@uwo.ca Abstract: This work discusses an important issue in the area of human resource management by proposing a novel model for creation and evaluation of software teams. The model consists of several assessments, including a technical test, a quality of life test and a psychological-sociological test. Since the technical test requires particular organisational specifications and cannot be examined without reference to a specific company, only the sociological test and the quality of life tests are extensively discussed in this work. Two strategies are discussed for assigning roles in a project. Initially, six software projects were selected and after extensive analysis of the projects, two projects were chosen and correctives actions were applied. An empirical evaluation was also conducted to assess the model’s effectiveness. The experimental results demonstrate that the application of the model improved the productivity of project teams. Keywords: team balance; team creation; human resource management; project management. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Torres, S., Piñero, Y., Piñero, P.Y. and Capretz, L.F. (2014) ‘Creation and evaluation of software teams – a social approach’, Int. J. Manufacturing Technology and Management, Vol. 28, Nos. 4/5/6, pp.167–183. Biographical notes: Surayne Torres is an Engineer in Informatics Science from Universidad de las Ciencias Informáticas (UCI) of Havana, Cuba (2008). She received her Master in Informatics Projects Managements from UCI (2011). She has several publications in journals and events around the human resources management. Currently, she is a Professor of Software Projects Management and member of the IT project management research group at UCI.