Effort estimation in global software development - a systematic review

Abstract

Global Software Development (GSD) is becoming increasingly prevalent, with software development teams being distributed around the world and working in collaboration with partner companies despite geographic and time differences. The main advantage of GSD which makes it attractive is the greater availability of human resources at lower costs. However, there are several disadvantages which are caused by the distance which separates the development teams. Coordination and communication become more difficult when the software development teams are located in different places, resulting in hidden costs involved in this process. As such, the effort estimation models used for collocated software development are inadequate for estimation in GSD. Thus, effort estimation in GSD is becoming an important area of research. Many researchers have focused on effort estimation in GSD over the last decade. This paper presents the findings of a systematic review of the related literature by summarizing the hidden costs in GSD, and discussing the open research issues in effort estimation in GSD.

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

“…The estimation techniques are high-level approaches adopted to estimate a project, i.e., automated, semi-automated, model-driven, or regression-based [4]. Simultaneously, the estimation models are more specified, corresponding to the particular mechanism for accurate estimation like COCOMO II based, cobra based, or machine learning-based [5]. Based on selected estimation techniques, the estimation models are created.…”

“…Figure 2 represents some statistics regarding the cost of Offshoring that how these additional factors could be misleading for the overall development if not properly analyzed and evaluated. The statistics are extracted from the existing literature [5]. The statistics depicted in Figure 2 provided us motivation to work in this area and to improve the aspects that are lacking to save the cost of Offshoring.…”

“…While cultural differences are the variations of values in different countries, these differences are an extra burden on management. They also associate hidden cost drivers for example, idle time in one site due to a public holiday in another country [5].…”

“…There are many tools and techniques available for the estimation of the cost. Many models are developed before the GSD concept, so these techniques lack the factors and the cost drivers associated with this development [5]. We are uncertain about the applicability of these techniques in GSD.…”

Considerations for Cost Estimation of Software Testing Outsourcing Projects

“…Besides that, some costs may need to be invested for project management tools in order to manage the project in distributed settings [6], [34] and test tools to manage the testing activities in particular [7], [35]. The project may also need to consider the costs for other facilities such as the storage room and office space which are commonly required to store physical materials generated throughout the project [19], [36].…”