Context Of Global Software Development Research Articles

A broad approach to expert detection using syntactic and semantic social networks analysis in the context of Global Software Development

Social network analysis has been widely used in different application contexts. For example, in Global Software Development, where multiple developers with diverse skills and knowledge are involved, the use of social networking models helps to understand how these developers collaborate. Finding experts who can help address critical elements or issues in a project is a challenging and critical task. It is especially true in the context of Global Software Development projects, where developers with specific skills and knowledge often need to be identified. In this sense, searching for essential members is a valuable task, as they are fundamental to the evolution of the network. This article proposes a broad solution for syntactic and semantic analysis in social networks in the Global Software Development context. In this solution, we define a model for the social network capable of capturing collaboration between developers, incorporate strategies for temporal analysis of the network, explore the network using machine learning algorithms, and propose an ontology to enrich the data semantically. We conducted three case studies using data extracted from GitHub to evaluate the proposed approach. The case studies provide evidence that our proposed method can identify specialists, highlighting their expertise and importance to the evolution of the social network.

Prioritization of global software requirements' engineering barriers: An analytical hierarchy process

Software industry is adopting global software development (GSD) due to its potential to produce quality products at a lower cost. However, the GSD firms face many challenges that make development activities more complicated, especially related to the requirements engineering (RE) process. The objectives of this article are to investigate and prioritize the barriers faced by the GSD organizations during the RE process. First, we identified 17 barriers related to the RE process in the GSD projects. Next, the identified barriers were further validated with real-world GSD practitioners using a questionnaire survey. Finally, we applied the analytical hierarchy process to prioritize the investigated barriers with respect to their significance for the RE process in the GSD domain. The results show that coordination is the most significant barrier category for the RE process in GSD projects. Lack of standard and procedure for RE in GSD, lack of synchronized communication infrastructure, and lack of mutual understanding between the overseas RE teams are also high-ranked barriers for the RE process in GSD. The authors believe that the findings of this study will assist practitioners and researchers in developing effective strategies and plans for the successful implementation of the RE process in the GSD context.

A Conceptual Model to Address the Communication and Coordination Challenges During Requirements Change Management in Global Software Development

Global Software Development (GSD) is a widely used development practice because of various advantages offered to the customers, vendors, and other stakeholders involved in a software project development. However, GSD is not a simple process as it faces multiple challenges that arise due to the mismanagement of the communication and coordination process. Meanwhile, Requirements Change Management (RCM) is a tedious and high resource-consuming process in GSD, which is further negatively affected by the poorly managed communication and coordination mechanisms. Multiple research studies have presented various theoretical and conceptual models to overcome the challenges during RCM in the GSD context. However, the current methodologies lack in handling the communication and coordination challenges during the RCM process in the GSD context. In the literature, the researchers have concluded that a conceptual model can effectively reduce the communication and coordination challenges during RCM in GSD. Inspired by this, the current work aims at proposing a conceptual model to overcome and mitigate the communication and coordination challenges, while ensuring the effective requirement changes at offshore software development sites. Moreover, it would help multiple stakeholders in understanding and managing the necessary resources before initiating the RCM process. To validate the proposed conceptual model, we have conducted a questionnaire-based survey to procure the results from the industrial experts working in the GSD domain. After analyzing the obtained results, we found that the proposed conceptual model is effective to handle the communication and coordination challenges up to 87%. In addition, almost 87% of the experts have agreed upon the correctness, identified challenges, and the mitigation practices in the proposed conceptual model necessary to improve the RCM process in the GSD context. Furthermore, it was observed that 75% of the experts also agreed upon the practical implementation of the proposed conceptual model in the software development industry to observe the heuristic performance of the proposed conceptual model.

Empirical Investigation About the Factors Affecting the Cost Estimation in Global Software Development Context

Software organization always aims at developing a quality software product using the estimated development resources, effort, and time. Global Software Development (GSD) has emerged as an essential tool to ensure optimal utilization of resources, which is performed in globally distributed settings in various geographical locations. Global software engineering focuses on reducing the cost, increasing the development speed, and accessing skilled developers worldwide. Estimating the required amount of resources and effort in the distributed development environment remains a challenging task. Thus, there is a need to focus on cost estimation models in the GSD context. We nevertheless acknowledge that several cost estimation techniques have been reported. However, to the best of our knowledge, the existing cost estimation techniques/models lack considering the additional cost drivers required to compute the accurate cost estimation in the GSD context. Motivated by this, the current work aims at identifying the other cost drivers that affect the cost estimation in the context of GSD. To achieve the targeted objectives, current state-of-the-art related to existing cost estimation techniques of GSD is reported. We adopted SLR and Empirical approach to address the formulated research questions. The current study also identifies the missing factors that would help the practitioners improve the cost estimation models. The results indicate that previously conducted work ignores the additional elements necessary for the cost estimation in the GSD context. Moreover, the current work proposes a conceptual cost estimation model tailored to fit the GSD context.

A Study on Mitigating the Communication and Coordination Challenges During Requirements Change Management in Global Software Development

Global Software Development (GSD) is widely used by software development organizations to ensure the development of a cost-effective software product. GSD has now become a common engineering practice adopted by a significant number of multinational software development organizations, and even individuals (freelancers) are seeking numerous benefits including low development cost, highly skilled workers, and access to better development ideas. However, communication and coordination challenges remain a prominent research issue in the GSD context, while performing different project-related activities especially for Requirements Change Management (RCM). As a result, improper communication and coordination during RCM require additional time, cost, and development resources. Thus, it is of vital importance to ensure proper communication and coordination before initiating a software project. Inspired by this, current work aims at exploring and mitigating the communication and coordination challenges during RCM in the GSD context. To accomplish the targeted research objective, we performed a tertiary study to provide a landscape of the challenges that occurred during RCM in the context of GSD. Based on the performed study, we found 62 communication and 14 coordination challenges. In total, 107 mitigation strategies are explored and reported that effectively address the categorized sub-challenges of communication and coordination. Moreover, we proposed a conceptual model useful to address the communication and coordination challenges for the RCM process in GSD. Furthermore, we consulted the domain experts for the validation of the proposed conceptual model. Based on the promising results, we believe that this work supports the project managers in managing the cost and time-related issues in the GSD context. Consequently, the proposed conceptual model would help in optimally utilizing the scared software development resources.

Software Cost Estimation in Global Software Development Business: A Review of Models and Cost Drivers for Economical Business

Global Software Development (GSD) has grown in popularity as important tool for ensuring the efficient use of resources in internationally distributed environments across multiple geographical locations for business. The most prominent features of GSD are lowering costs, speeding up growth, and gaining access to talented developers all over the world. However, there are a number of drawbacks that result from the distance between development teams including coordination and communication causing the hidden business costs involved in development process. In the context of GSD, it is necessary to focus on economic cost estimation models as estimating the needed resources and effort remains a difficult task. Software cost estimation has become a critical factor in determining software development effectiveness economically. There are many cost estimating models, including algorithmic, non-algorithmic, and hybrid for business development environment. Over the last decade, several studies have focused on economic cost estimate in GSD. To the best of our understanding, current cost estimation techniques/models do not take into account all the additional business cost drivers that are necessary to calculate accurate cost estimation in the GSD context. In this paper we present a comparative analysis of economic software cost estimation techniques along with cost divers used in GSD context. This paper summarizes the additional cost drivers in GSD and discusses open research topics in economic cost estimation in GSD based on the results review of the associated literature.

An Amplified COCOMO-II Based Cost Estimation Model in Global Software Development Context

Global Software Development (GSD) projects comprise several critical cost drivers that affect the overall project cost and budget overhead. Thus, there is a need to amplify the existing model in GSD context to reduce the risks associated with cost overhead. Motivated by this, the current work aims at amplifying the existing algorithmic model with GSD cost drivers to get efficient estimates in the context of GSD. To achieve the targeted research objective, current state-of-the-art cost estimation techniques and GSD models are reported. Furthermore, the current study has proposed a conceptual framework to amplify the algorithmic COCOMO-II model in the GSD domain to accommodate additional cost drivers empirically validated by a systematic review and industrial practitioners. The main phases of amplification include identifying cost drivers, categorizing cost drivers, forming metrics, assignment of values, and finally altering the base model equation. Moreover, the proposed conceptual model's effectiveness is validated through expert judgment, case studies, and Magnitude of Relative Estimates (MRE). The obtained estimates are efficient, quantified, and cover additional GSD aspects than the existing models; hence we could overcome the GSD project's overall risk by implementing the model. Finally, the results indicate that the model needs further calibration and validation.

A fuzzy analytical hierarchy process to prioritize the success factors of requirement change management in global software development

AbstractPlanning and managing of requirement change management (RCM) process in global software development (GSD) are a complicated task, but the RCM plays a significant role in developing the quality software within time and budget. The key aim of this study is to prioritize the factors that could positively influence the RCM program in GSD context. To achieve the study objective, the questionnaire survey study was conducted to get the feedback of the practitioners concerning the success factors of RCM in GSD context. Moreover, the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) was applied. The application of FAHP is novel in this research domain as it has been effectively applied previously in various other research areas, for example, supplier selection, electronics and electrical, personnel selection, and agile software development. The results of this study will provide the prioritization‐based taxonomy of RCM success factors and also contribute by introducing the novel FAHP approach in the research domain of RCM in GSD. The FAHP approach assists the practitioners to reduce the uncertainty and vague opinions of RCM experts.

A Systematic Study to Improve the Requirements Engineering Process in the Domain of Global Software Development

The software organizations are outsourcing their development activities across the geographical border due to huge business gains. However, the adoption of the global software development (GSD) paradigm is not straightforward; various challenges are associated with it, particularly related to the requirements engineering (RE) process. The objective of this study is to identify the barriers to the RE process faced during GSD. To achieve this, we have conducted a systematic mapping study and questionnaire survey to identify and validate the barriers of the RE process with industry practitioners. A total of 20 barriers were identified and validated with the experts. Moreover, we have performed organization types (client and vendor), organization size (small, medium, and large) and experts' levels (junior, intermediate, and senior) based analysis to provide a clear understanding of the RE barriers in the three different context. Besides, we have also developed a theoretical framework by mapping the investigated barriers into six core knowledge areas of software process improvement. The mapping results indicated that project administration is the most significant knowledge area of investigated barriers. We believe that the findings of this study will provide a framework that assists the GSD practitioners in developing an effective plan and strategies to improve the RE process in the GSD context.

Identification and Prioritization of Agile Requirements Change Management Success Factors in the Domain of Global Software Development

The economic and strategic gains motivated the majority of software firms to adopt global software development (GSD). The adoption of GSD is not straightforward. The geographical distance between the GSD teams causes the various problems for the implementation of agile software development activities, particularly, that related to requirements change management in agile (ARCM). The objective of this study is to explore the success factors of ARCM in GSD context and prioritized them based on their significance. The study comprised of two steps: (1) identify the success factors of ARCM using systematic mapping study (SMS) and validate them with industry practitioners using questionnaire survey approach; (2) prioritize the identified success factors by applying the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) approach. A total of 21 success factors that are significant for ARCM process were identified using SMS and questionnaire survey study. The results of AHP shows that allocation of resources at overseas sites, 3C's (communication, coordination and control), geographically distributed change control board (CCB), RCM process improvement expertise and continuous top management support are the highest priority success factors of ARCM process in the context of GSD. The findings assist the practitioners to address the most priority success factors in order to successfully implement the ARCM activities in the domain of GSD.

A State of the Art: Software Configuration Management Tools for Global Software Development

Global Software Development (GSD) has emerged widely in today’s software development environment. The emergence of GSD has create difficulty to several technical areas such as Requirement Engineering, Validation and Verification; not to mention Software Configuration Management (SCM) practices. To date, many SCM tools has been proposed by the researchers to reduce the difficulties faced by GSD project developers when dealing with SCM practices. Therefore, there is a need to update on the current trend of SCM tools in GSD context in order to assist practitioners in selecting the best tools for their project. To perform the study, Systematic Mapping Studies (SMS) has been used to identify and provide an overview of the SCM tools which has been developed specifically for GSD environment. This paper contributes the following: 1) This paper synthesized the SCM tools in GSD and 2) Current trend of SCM tools in today’s software development environment also is identified.

A method for investigating the quality of evolving object‐oriented software using defects in global software development projects

AbstractContext: Global software development (GSD) projects can have distributed teams that work independently in different locations or team members that are dispersed. The various development settings in GSD can influence quality during product evolution. When evaluating quality using defects as a proxy, the development settings have to be taken into consideration.Objective: The aim is to provide a systematic method for supporting investigations of the implication of GSD contexts on defect data as a proxy for quality.Method: A method engineering approach was used to incrementally develop the proposed method. This was done through applying the method in multiple industrial contexts and then using lessons learned to refine and improve the method after application.Results: A measurement instrument and visualization was proposed incorporating an understanding of the release history and understanding of GSD contexts.Conclusion: The method can help with making accurate inferences about development settings because it includes details on collecting and aggregating data at a level that matches the development setting in a GSD context and involves practitioners at various phases of the investigation. Finally, the information that is produced from following the method can help practitioners make informed decisions when planning to develop software in comparable circumstances. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Visualisation environment for global software development management

Global software development (GSD) involves new challenges that need to be addressed when project managers have to make significant decisions such as task allocation, resource assignments, etc. Visualisation techniques can be useful as regards helping managers to process complex information and interpret the data shown. The main goal of this study is to describe a visualisation environment with which to support the decision-making process in GSD contexts. The environment contains a set of visualisation metaphors that can be organised in a hierarchical manner and which show both the information related to GSD projects and subprojects and the organisational context of companies and their corresponding factories. The DESGLOSA tool has been developed to support the visualisation of measures and indicators in GSD. The tool has been applied in one of the INDRA Company's GSD projects and two surveys have been conducted to validate the potential usefulness of the environment and its applicability in the company. The results of these surveys were that most of the participants agreed that the tool is useful and stated that they would be willing to incorporate this kind of applications into their daily work.

Modelado de procesos en el desarrollo global de software

El modelado de procesos software es una actividad que se consolida como estrategia básica para mejorar la producción de aplicaciones so­ftware. El advenimiento del desarrollo global de software con actores disgregados alrededor de todo el mundo oferta grandes beneficios a la labor de producción de aplicaciones software; sin embargo, impone retos y dificultades a superar para lograr su cometido. El presente artículo presenta GSDModel, un marco de trabajo que pretende guiar el modelado de procesos en el contexto del desarrollo global de software.

FACTORS AFFECTING DISTRIBUTED AGILE PROJECTS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

In the last decade we have witnessed a growth in outsourcing and outshoring development. Following the promise of reducing costs and round-the-clock development, software organizations have grown from local to global enterprises. In the same decade, agile software development methodologies have emerged as a viable alternative to produce software. There is a myriad of agile processes and methodologies now available for any software development organization to choose from. These agile processes follow the values signed in the Agile Manifesto that preaches the exaltation of the individual programmer, high feedback, customer interaction and just enough planning and documentation. But how does global distribution affect these values? Can agile software development be implemented under the global software development context? This paper presents a systematic literature review aimed at identifying factors that affect the adoption of agile factors in global distributed teams. Our findings show that the literature is still in its initial case study publication stage. But most notably, we have found that only a few of the factors found are related to the agile values. Even though more research is clearly needed, this can be a signal that the factors affecting team distribution has more impact on software development than the values and practices preached by the agile processes.

Analyzing Human Resource Management Practices Within the GSD Context

The development of software across different countries (and time zones) differs substantially from software development in one single country or region. The management of processes and people, who work in globally distributed teams, requires a high level of coordination and collaboration which needs to be based on established human resource management practices. The People Capability Maturity Model (People-CMM) provides a complete framework that enables quality in human resource management to be improved. However, today, the adoption of the People-CMM within organizations using Global Software Development (GSD) is not an easy task. This paper uses an empirical study to analyze the implementation of the People-CMM within the GSD context. Results confirm that cultural and communication problems are the main challenges in the implementation of the People-CMM adoption within GSD scenarios.

The Context of Global Software Development: Challenges, Best Practices and Benefits

Global Software Development (GSD) environment is based on a contractual relationship between client and vendor organizations in which a client outsources all or some part of its software development activities to a vendor. The vendor in return provides the agreed services in lieu of certain amount of remuneration. The main reasons to select the GSD technique include reduced cost, faster development and access to skilled manpower available across the world. Though GSD is emerging as an effective technique, but it suffers from many challenges like poor communication, lack of trust and coordination. These challenges pose serious risk to the smooth execution of the GSD projects. In the past decade, GSD has become an area of active research and a number of the researchers have worked on different aspects of it. In this paper, we present a critical review of the research studies conducted on GSD to highlight the challenges, best practices and benefits of GSD. Our findings reveal that much of the research in this area has been focused on addressing issues faced by client organizations, however, vendor side in the GSD relationship is much ignored due to which this field of study is still immature; hence, further research work is required to be undertaken to address the issues faced by the vendor organizations.