Crowdsourcing Software Development: Many Benefits Many Concerns

Abstract

The earlier days of software development have witnessed the development through conventional development methods. With the aid of crowdsourcing, the tasks which are performed in a closed environment by limited persons can be distributed among the crowd. This method adopted by some of the companies proved to be a blessing for them while for others it has been not so well thought of decision. The successfully running platforms are an example to those who intend to shift onto crowdsourcing software development and make mark as successful crowdsourced platforms. On one hand the successfully running systems can provide an example to those who want to embrace crowdsourcing, while on the other hand the learning of various companies which due to their slips have faced great losses can be of great help to the initiators. To help upcoming organizations make an appropriate choice, the benefits and concerns of crowdsourcing software development is the requisite of the hour. We investigate case studies revealing the success and failures of adopting crowdsourcing software development. This work puts together both the benefits as well as issues to crowdsource software development with regard to schedule, cost & quality of the software developed.