Geographical Distance Challenges in Distributed Agile Software Development: Case Study of a Global Company

Abstract

Over the last decade, distributed software development (DSD) become very popular for most of the major companies. According to the effects of globalization, software development methodologies and practices are also impressed. Because of the underlying philosophy of agile, agile teams are paying more attention to communication that is mostly applicable for collocated teams. Most of the companies that apply distributed development, adopted agile software methodology into their software development lifecycle to reduce temporal, geographical and socio-cultural distance challenges. Regarding this, DSD brings along various challenges to be conducted by the distributed development team and also difficulties to apply agile practices at different locations. In this paper, the findings from a case study on geographical challenges in three small, one medium and one large distributed agile software development projects are presented. The empirical investigation with twelve people was done at one German-based global company that operates more than twenty countries. Finally, geographical distance based challenges were reported that create risks for communication, coordination, and control processes at DSD.