Global Software Engineering Research Articles

Trustworthy and collaborative traceability management: Experts’ feedback on a blockchain‐enabled framework

AbstractBlockchain technology has attracted significant attention in both academia and industry. Recently, the application of blockchain has been advocated in software engineering. The global software engineering paradigm exacerbates trust issues, as distributed and cross‐organizational teams need to share software artifacts. In such a context, there is a need for a decentralized yet reliable traceability knowledge base to keep track of what/how/when/by whom software artifacts were created or changed. This study presents a blockchain‐enabled framework for trustworthy and collaborative traceability management and identifies benefits, challenges, and potential improvements based on the feedback of software engineering experts. A qualitative approach was followed in this study through semistructured interviews with software engineering (SE) experts. Transcripts were analyzed by applying the content analysis technique. The results indicated the emergence of five categories, further grouped into three main categories: experts' perceptions, blockchain‐based software process improvement, and experts' recommendations. In addition, the findings suggested four archetypes of organizations that may be interested in blockchain technology: distributed organizations, organizations with contract‐based projects, organizations in regulated domains, and regulators who may push the use of this technology. Further efforts should be devoted to the integration of the proposal with tools used throughout the software development lifecycle and leveraging the potential of smart contracts in validating the implementation of requirements automatically.

How did COVID-19 Impact Software Design Activities in Global Software Engineering — Systematic Review

Background: Global Software Engineering (GSE) extends geographical, temporal, and cultural boundaries in distributed environments. Over the past two decades, GSE research has evolved to manage software development for distributed teams. The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for comprehensive research, particularly during the software design phase, to support team collaboration in distributed development. Aim: This study systematically analyzes the evolution of research emphasis in the GSE field, specifically exploring on whether the research focuses increasing on software design due to the global pandemic. Method: We systematically analyzed the existing literature in two phases. In the first phase of our study, we mapped GSE research over the two decades leading to the pandemic (2000–2020). In the second phase, we used the forward snowballing approach to examine the literature on the software design phase published between 2020 and 2022. Results: The analysis of 592 research studies in the two phases reveals various trends in GSE research. Evaluation research is the most explored research type in methods and processes, and human aspects of development. Despite the paradigm shift caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that increased reliance on distributed teams, results show that while software organizations are extensively studied across all software engineering phases, the software design phase remains one of the least explored areas. Conclusion: This work highlights the evolving GSE research trends, emphasizing the rising significance of collaborative software design in distributed settings. Our findings address current research gaps and underscore the need for further research on software design activities. This contribution envisions a more collaborative, adaptable GSE field, guiding future research to support distributed teams.

Identifying the primary dimensions of DevSecOps: A multi-vocal literature review

Context:Security as a key non-functional requirement of software development is often ignored and devalued in DevOps programs, with security seen as an inhibitor to high velocity required in DevOps implementation. Hence, the DevSecOps approach as a security-orientated expansion to DevOps, has aimed to integrate security into DevOps implementation by promoting collaboration among development, operation and security teams. DevSecOps is a topical concept and rapidly emerging area of practice in both academic and industrial settings. Objective:We reviewed both the white and grey literature to identify recent researches and practical trends of DevSecOps, aiming to: (a) review, document and analyze the current state of DevSecOps in the existing literature; (b) investigate the application of DevSecOps in Global Software Engineering (GSE) contexts. Method:A Multi-vocal Literature Review on DevSecOps and its global application was conducted, by executing a dual-track strategy including white (104 studies) and grey (43 studies) literature from 2012 to 2021. A Thematic Analysis was performed to identify, synthesize and analyze the themes within data for reporting the MLR results. Results:Through the Multi-vocal Literature Review and Thematic Analysis, this paper identifies five major aspects of DevSecOps (Definitions, Challenges, Practices, Tools/Technologies, and Metrics/Measurement); collects related themes of each aspect; and generates a Challenge-Practice-Tool-Metric (CPTM) model by integrating the themes of the latter four aspects within a lifecycle model. Moreover, an unexplored area relating to the global application of DevSecOps has been identified. Conclusion:Based on MLR results, a CPTM (Challenge-Practice-Tool-Metric) model is built to reveal the current status of DevSecOps. The model provides a breakdown and a broad landscape of DevSecOps, from which researchers and practitioners may select an area of focus to improve their knowledge or practice. With DevSecOps spanning the many stages of the lifecycle, we believe the model will enable emphases and absences such as global aspects to be investigated.Editor’s note: Open Science material was validated by the Journal of Systems and Software Open Science Board.

Challenges and Barriers to Software Testing

Software development in a context where development locations are separated across geographical regions, either nearby or internationally, is quickly becoming a popular practice. This software development agreement is often mentioned as Global Software. "Global Software Development (GSD) is also known as Distributed Software Development (DSD) or Global Software Engineering (GSE)". Plans carried out by a scattered squad have been identified by way of a more dangerous and hard enterprise than projects carried out by teams working below a similar roof. As a result, considering the possible obstacles and appropriate mitigation techniques for GSD is critical for operating a successful project. Software development is divided into stages of requirements, analysis, designs, coding, and testing. The creation of software in globalized settings is frequent and significant in today's world of software development. This paper emphasizes the condition of software product transmission, which deals with software testing in an overseas site, as part of numerous globalized scenarios.

Global Software Engineering Education: Students’ Experiences during the Pandemic

Global Software Engineering Education: Students’ Experiences during the Pandemic

Software Engineering and Ethics: Navigating the Ethical Landscape in the Digital Age

In the unexpectedly evolving landscape of software engineering, moral considerations have emerged as an important cornerstone, guiding the moral compass of professionals in the digital age. This summary encapsulates a comprehensive assessment exploring the difficult dating between software engineering and ethics. It navigates through the moral challenges faced by software engineers, inclusive of privateer’s issues, safety vulnerabilities, algorithmic biases, and intellectual property problems. Delving into established moral choice-making frameworks, inclusive of utilitarianism and deontology, this overview analyzes their application in actual global software engineering situations. Through insightful case studies, this paper sheds mild on historic and contemporary moral dilemmas, providing treasured classes for the software program engineering community. The assessment additionally emphasizes the significance of promoting ethical practices within businesses, advocating for transparency, responsibility, and a tradition of obligation. Looking in advance, the paper discusses the future of software engineering and ethics, exploring the moral dimensions of emerging technology like artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. By supplying a roadmap for ethical software program development, this evaluation underscores the vital for software engineers to navigate the ethical complexities, fostering a moral virtual ecosystem for present-day and future generations.

Stress, motivation, and performance in global software engineering

AbstractThe objective of this study is to analyze the current perspective as regards knowledge related to what causes stress or motivates developers, how these two aspects are related to each other, and how this in turn affects their performance in the sphere of Global Software Development and how these can be controlled. This paper presents the results obtained after conducting a systematic mapping study of literature in order to analyze how stress, motivation, and performance affect the project members in Global Software Development teams. We carried out a systematic mapping of published studies dealing with stress, motivation, and performance in global software engineering. A total of 118 papers dealing with this subject were found. The literature analyzed provided a relatively significant quantity of data referring to the impact that the characteristics of distributed software development projects have on the performance and productivity of teams, along with the actions taken to improve that performance. However, when focusing on the analysis of the impact of this type of projects on team members' motivation, and on the actions that can be taken to improve that motivation, we discovered that the number of works decreases considerably and that works referring to the impact of this kind of development on developers' stress were virtually non‐existent, as were those concerning ways in which to improve that stress. We are, therefore, of the opinion that it is necessary to carry out in‐depth research into the aspects of working in distributed teams that may have a negative impact on developers' levels of motivation and stress, along with what could be beneficial in order to improve levels of motivation and decrease levels of stress.

Counteracting sociocultural barriers in global software engineering using group activities

AbstractIn modern times, internationally organized teams face a number of coordination problems owing to their different physical operating locations. These challenges usually come in temporal, cultural, and linguistic forms. To resolve some of these issues, we need more coordination, teamwork, and shared understanding in the requirements engineering phase. Many approaches have been introduced to overcome these challenges associated with global software engineering (GSE). The objective of this research study is to introduce amateurs to GSE and improve their understanding of its associated challenges through an activity‐based learning approach. Our method is primarily targeted toward students who already have theoretical knowledge on the topic but require first‐hand experience with GSE. With the aforementioned motivation in mind, we propose, designe, and empirically evaluate two different activities that can help enhance awareness of GSE challenges. For each activity, we simulate an environment wherein participants are made to go through various constructed coordination challenges related to communication, time management, team mistrust, linguistic barriers, cultural barriers, and distribution of tasks. The effectiveness of our proposed activities, captured by the extent to which participants were able to deal with GSE challenges, was judged through various techniques including (i) observation, (ii) post activities survey questionnaire, and (iii) brainstorming and discussion. We show that the proposed activities were effective in helping students learn and further their understanding of GSE concepts. In particular, discussion sessions and survey questionnaire results reflect their ability to identify critical GSE challenges (specifically related to teams) in a simulated scenario.

Is it worth adopting DevOps practices in Global Software Engineering? Possible challenges and benefits

The software industry is adopting the DevOps paradigm to an increasingly frequent extent. In addition, the trend of developing software in a distributed manner greatly increased as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced team members from software companies to work remotely. We present the results of a Systematic Mapping Study (SMS) of how DevOps has been applied in distributed and global settings that adopts Global Software Development (GSD). The results were obtained from analysing 27 papers. The main conclusions obtained after carrying our SMS show that adopting DevOps in such settings by implementing certain practices brings several advantages to software companies, even though there are difficulties to be confronted when adopting DevOps in global and distributed contexts. Moreover, we (1) proposed definition of DevOps in distributed and global settings, (2) mapped the challenges detected with a list of well-known GSD risks and (3) mapped the benefits that can be obtained from applying certain practices identified and the challenges that should be overcame to obtain such benefits.

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Issue Information

Journal of Software: Evolution and ProcessVolume 35, Issue 5 e2472 ISSUE INFORMATIONFree Access Issue Information First published: 25 April 2023 https://doi.org/10.1002/smr.2472AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Abstract No abstract is available for this article. Volume35, Issue5Special Issue: Best papers of the 14th International Conference on Software and System Processes (ICSSP 2020) and 15th International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE 2020)May 2023e2472 RelatedInformation

Editorial: Machine learning, software process, and global software engineering

AbstractOn June 26–28, 2020, the International Conference on Software and Systems Processes (ICSSP 2020) and the International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE 2020) were held in virtual settings during the first year of the COVID pandemic. Several submissions to the joint event have been selected for inclusion in this special issue, focusing on impactful and timely contributions to machine learning (ML). At present, many in our field are enthusiastic about the potential of ML, yet some risks should not be casually overlooked or summarily dismissed. Each ML implementation is subtly different from any other implementation, and the risk profile varies greatly based on the approach adopted and the implementation context. The ICSSP/ICGSE 2020 Program Committees have encouraged submissions that explore the risks and benefits associated with ML so that the important discussion regarding ML efficacy and advocacy can be further elaborated. Four contributions have been included in this special issue.

Editorial: Best papers of the 14th International Conference on Software and System Processes (ICSSP 2020) and 15th International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE 2020)

Today's software industry is global, virtual, and depending more than ever on strong and reliable processes. Stakeholders and infrastructure are distributed across the globe, posing challenges that go beyond those with co-located teams and servers. Software Engineering continues to be a complex undertaking, with projects challenged to meet expectations, especially regarding costs. We know that Software Engineering is an ever-changing discipline, with the result that firms and their employees must regularly embrace new methods, tools, technologies, and processes. In 2020, the International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE) and the International Conference on Systems and Software Processes (ICSSP) joined forces aiming to create a holistic understanding of the software landscape both from the perspective of human and infrastructure distribution and also the processes to support software development. Unfortunately, these challenges have become even more personal to many more in 2020 due to the disruption introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced both conferences to be held virtually. As an outcome of the joint event, we selected a set of the best papers from the two conferences, which were invited to submit extended versions to this Special Issue in the Journal of Software: Maintenance and Evolution. Dedicated committees were established to identify the best papers. Eight papers were invited and ultimately, seven of these invited papers have made it into this Special Issue.

Implications of Onshore Development on Global Software Engineering

Recently software industry has paid significant attention to customizing software products across distributed boundaries. Communicating the requirements of multiple clients across distributed borders is a crucial challenge for the software customization process. Local decision-making and local development at the client site are considered methods for reducing difficulties in communicating the requirements of multiple clients across distributed boundaries. This paper introduces a new model called the onshore development model (ODM) for accomplishing the customization requests in the distributed development process of software. This model presents a scenario for enhancing the onsite development of specific requirements to reduce delays and misunderstandings between the clients and the team involved. This model depends on moving the development process to the client’s location. Three empirical studies were conducted to evaluate the proposed model to measure its productivity, time performance, and cost reduction. The proposed model has been compared with two other models: the basic model (BM), which allocates the decision-making process and the development process for teams at the vendor’s location, and the local decision-making model (LDec), which assigns the decision-making process for team at the client’s location. The results of the empirical studies showed significant outperforming of the proposed model over the basic model and local decision-making model in productivity, time performance, and cost reduction. The productivity of the proposed model improved by 39% and 10% more than the basic model and the local decision-making model, respectively. In addition, the time performance of the proposed model became faster by 49% and 20.8% than the basic model and the local decision-making model, respectively. Also, it reduced the total cost of the development process by 31% in terms of the salaries of all persons involved in requirements collecting, decision-making, and development.

Challenges for Inclusion in Software Engineering: The Case of the Emerging Papua New Guinean Society

Software plays a central role in modern societies, with its high economic value and potential for advancing societal change. In this paper, we characterise challenges and opportunities for a country progressing towards entering the global software industry, focusing on Papua New Guinea (PNG). By hosting a Software Engineering workshop, we conducted a qualitative study by recording talks (n=3), employing a questionnaire (n=52), and administering an in-depth focus group session with local actors (n=5). Based on a thematic analysis, we identified challenges as barriers and opportunities for the PNG software engineering community. We also discuss the state of practices and how to make it inclusive for practitioners, researchers, and educators from both the local and global software engineering community

Tags’ Recommender to Classify Architectural Knowledge Applying Language Models

Agile global software engineering challenges architectural knowledge (AK) management since face-to-face interactions are preferred over comprehensive documentation, which causes AK loss over time. The AK condensation concept was proposed to reduce AK losing, using the AK shared through unstructured electronic media. A crucial part of this concept is a classification mechanism to ease AK recovery in the future. We developed a Slack complement as a classification mechanism based on social tagging, which recommends tags according to a chat/message topic, using natural language processing (NLP) techniques. We evaluated two tagging modes: NLP-assisted versus alphabetical auto-completion, in terms of correctness and time to select a tag. Fifty-two participants used the complement emulating an agile and global scenario and gave us their complement’s perceptions about usefulness, ease of use, and work integration. Messages tagged through NLP recommendations showed fewer semantic errors, and participants spent less time selecting a tag. They perceived the component as very usable, useful, and easy to be integrated into the daily work. These results indicated that a tag recommendation system is necessary to classify the shared AK accurately and quickly. We will improve the NLP techniques to evaluate AK condensation in a long-term test as future work.

Balanced, Unbalances, and One-Sided Distributed Teams - An Empirical View on Global Software Engineering Education

Balanced, Unbalances, and One-Sided Distributed Teams - An Empirical View on Global Software Engineering Education

The Value Creation Determinants of the Global Software Engineering Industry

Every requirement in the software application does not add value to the end users equally where the stakeholders are benefited through them. Majority of the current software engineering practices are formed and done in a value neutral way. With the recent demand for the global software engineering, many organizations have decided to either initiate their own technology centers in the low-cost countries or to partner with outsourced companies to get the benefits of it. However, the practitioners tried applying the traditional software development processes without a proper customization of them to best suit for the distributed teams. Due to the nature of this industry, those traditional processes have further eroded the value with unnecessary checkpoints and gates. This research therefore was carried out to identify the value creation dimensions and their influence creating value with special reference the global software engineering industry. For that, a systematic literature review was carried out and findings were categorized to five areas based on the research questions. They are benefit realization in the delivery process, eliciting and reconciling the requirements for stakeholder value proposition, business case analysis against the business processes, assessment of the value, risk, and opportunity through the frameworks and finally value based monitoring and control through the software development methodology. Mapping the development processes against these areas can change the value addition on the global software engineering industry.

Cadxela: An educational tool for supporting the global software engineering education at undergraduate level

AbstractThe Global Software Development (GSD) strategy has introduced many benefits into the modern software industry, but it has also created many risks that can negatively affect the quality of the final product. Moreover, this approach is still in constant evolution and, therefore, diverse issues and challenges related to geographical, temporal, and sociocultural distances are also present. Therefore, many universities around the world are increasing their efforts in creating programs to prepare more skilled graduates to work in globally distributed environments. However, providing GSD courses among universities distributed in different locations is not so profitable and normally involves a high number of collaborations among various teachers and students that traditional teaching approaches cannot support. In this study, the Cadxela tool is presented to enable undergraduate students to acquire practical experience in GSD and improve their communication and teamwork skills. An empirical evaluation was conducted on Cadxela involving students and teachers from five universities in Mexico, Spain, Chile, Cuba, and Peru. The participants developed a total of 15 projects to experience different problems related to geographical, temporal, and sociocultural distances. The obtained results from pre and post‐evaluations showed that Cadxela can contribute to facilitating the development of practical projects on GSD undergraduate courses, while students develop their knowledge, social skills associated with this topic as well as teamwork and communication skills. Finally, the data collected on the teachers' perceptions suggested that Cadxela can also be a useful tool for introducing the GSD approach at the undergraduate level.

Global software engineering in the age of GitHub and zoom

AbstractMuch has changed since the inaugural ICGSE conference in 2006. Tools have improved, awareness of cultural differences is widespread, and developments such as the foregrounding of open source have all enhanced our ability to work across geographic divides. But the pervasive and profound impact of software in the world—especially for societal scale systems such as social media—forces new and deeply challenging responsibilities on both developers and academics. We must find better ways of incorporating ethics into our development practices and pay far more attention to harmful unintended consequences as deployed systems interact with and often disrupt crucial social systems.