A Conceptual Model of Factors Influencing Customer Relationship Management in Global Software Development: A Client Perspective

Abstract

The software development industry or organizations increasingly emerging day by day have adopted global software development (GSD) practices due to the large significance of outsourcing. These industries face many challenges due to a lack of understanding customer perspective in the GSD environment. For any organization, the customer is the major stakeholder, and customer relationship management (CRM) plays a vital role in customer satisfaction with software development projects. These challenges create serious risks for any software development project’s success. Thus, CRM is a crucial challenge in the success of software projects in the GSD environment. This research study aims to address the factors that negatively influence CRM implementation in the global context and proposes a conceptual model based on the identified factors for enhancing software product quality. The systematic literature review (SLR) phase investigates the potential barriers to CRM implementation in GSD. Based on identified barriers, an initial conceptual model is developed. The proposed conceptual model is validated using a questionnaire survey of the GSD industry and CRM practitioners of Pakistan. Statistical analysis and several suitable tests are also performed to develop the final conceptual model for CRM implementation in the GSD environment. This research is performed from the client’s perspective. The results are promising and accommodating to avoid any software project failure due to customer-related issues in a GSD environment.

A Conceptual Framework Based on PLS-SEM Approach for Sustainable Customer Relationship Management in Enterprise Software Development: Insights from Developers

“…This research shows that CRM is pivotal in the GSD context [24]. The paramount aim of the study was to indicate every single challenge that customers face in GSD and raise CRM implantation in GSD.…”

“…In gathering data for project development from the customer's side, collaboration and coordination are crucial [93]. As mentioned in [24], global organizations have distributed customers, and their limited collaboration and coordination cause mutual understanding and communication [83]. CRM development is also affected due to a lack of coordination from the customer side and a tough task in understanding clients' requirements and issues.…”

“…Even with the significance of CRM in several aspects, none of the comprehensive research probes the barriers affecting CRM implementation while outsourcing from the viewpoint of the developers. In our previous research [24], the focus was on the client perspective; our research is based on the developer perspective, which has not been targeted before.…”

A Systematic Framework for Addressing Critical Challenges in Adopting DevOps Culture in Software Development: A PLS-SEM Perspective

“…The close-ended queries were drawn up and forwarded to the practitioners of software industries having experience in adopting DevOps culture. Wherefore, the answer to closeended queries was simple for the applicants [84]. First, some simple queries were generated after that these were refined by applying innumerable validity experiments and performing the feasibility study.…”