No abstract

No abstract

Currently, being deployed by organizations to develop high-quality software at a low cost, global software development (GSD) faces many challenges that make development activities more complex. These GSD challenges are mainly concerned with requirements to change management (RCM). RCM plays a key role in the successful execution of software projects. The objective of this paper is to identify the best practices of the RCM process by adopting a systematic literature review (SLR) and validate them using questionnaire survey with industry experts. A total of 46 best practices were identified through SLR and validated with industry experts. We have further classified the identified practices in the domain of client and vendor GSD organizations with the aim to provide a clear understanding of the RCM best practices in the context of both types of GSD organizations (client, vendor). Moreover, we have conducted a comparison analysis between SLR and questionnaire survey data and found a moderate positive correlation in the ranks of both data sets (r s = 0.522, p=0.003). In addition, the criticality of the identified best practices was assessed using the criteria of a practice having frequency ≥50%. The findings of this paper provide a framework that could help the GSD organizations to address the problems related to RCM in GSD environment.INDEX TERMS Global software development (GSD), requirements change management (RCM), best practices, systematic literature review (SLR), empirical investigation, client, vendor.

No abstract

The software organizations rapidly adopting global software development (GSD) to gain the economic and strategic benefits. Besides, GSD faces many challenges that mainly concerned with the requirements change management (RCM). This study aims to identify and empirically validate the factors that can negatively influence the RCM process in GSD. To this end, literature review and questionnaire survey were conducted for the investigation and validation of RCM challenges. A total of 31 RCM challenges were identified. We have further classified the identified challenges in organization types, organization size and based on experts' opinions with the aim to provide a clear understanding of the RCM process and its challenges to the practitioners. Based on these identified challenges, we believe that this study can provide a framework for tackling problems associated with RCM activities in GSD environment, which is significant to success and progression of GSD organizations.INDEX TERMS Requirements change management, challenges, and empirical investigations.

According to the current situation, the most controversial issues emerging in developing countries are the excellence and quality of the national education. Several escalating challenges, especially those related to the secondary school administration, are inevitably responsible for poor administrative and academic performance. In addressing those challenges, school administrators are expected to take full accountability for the implementation of educational policies into practice efficiently. The key objective of the study is to explore the prospective challenges principals are encountering in low-performing public secondary schools. To fulfil the research purpose, a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire was developed. A sample of 122 secondary school principals in Faisalabad District was selected by taking advantage of purposive sampling technique. As a result, a total of 24 challenges were collectively validated through questionnaire survey. Frequency analysis approach was initially applied to figure out the most critical challenges. Accordingly, 7 challenges were found statistically significant with a frequency ≥50% for each factor. Additionally, school-type-based (rural vs. urban) analysis was performed by applying Chi-Square test. Furthermore, a taxonomy was developed to classify the identified challenges into nine basic knowledge-areas of school administration. The results revealed ‘Governance and Relationships” is the most significant knowledge-area attribute for school improvement.

Offshore software development outsourcing (OSDO) is one of the popular development paradigms in the software industry. There are a number of challenges associated with OSDO including the challenges related to requirements engineering (RE) process. The objective of this study is to identify success factors (SFs) associated with RE processes in the OSDO context. A total of 25 SFs were identified using systematic literature review (SLR) and the identified SFs were further validated with practitioners using a questionnaire‐based survey. The authors also examined the identified RE challenges with respect to their relevance for different organisation types (client and vendor) and sizes (small, medium, and large) with an aim to provide a clear understanding of the RE process and its SFs in the context of various OSDO organisations. They also conducted a comparative analysis between the SLR and questionnaire findings and the results indicate that there is a moderately positive correlation between the data sets. They believe that the findings of this study will provide a comprehensive model to help OSDO organisations assess and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their RE activities.

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.INDEX TERMS Global software development (GSD), agile requirements change management (ARCM), analytical hierarchy process (AHP), success factors.