Empirical investigation of the challenges of the existing tools used in global software development projects

Niazi, Mahmood; Mahmood, Sajjad; Alshayeb, Mohammad; Hroub, Ayman

doi:10.1049/iet-sen.2014.0130

Cited by 40 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Systematic literature review process is used for the identification, evaluation, and interpretation of all primary studies relevant to a specific research question or topic. It is a type of secondary study and up to some extent repeatable because it utilizes a well‐defined methodology . The SLR process has been used by a number of researchers for producing reliable and rigorous results as compared to ordinary literature review .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Software integration in global software development: Challenges for GSD vendors

Ilyas

Khan

2017

J Softw Evol Proc

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Context The advances in information and communication technologies have revolutionized the software development environment from local to global software development (GSD). This revolution also created challenges for vendor organizations. Vendors face challenges in integrating the components developed independently by GSD teams into a final working product. Objective The objectives of the current study is to find out those critical barriers/challenges that hinder the integration process at any stage in the GSD environment for different types and size of projects. Methodology For achieving the objectives we initially conducted a comprehensive systematic literature review (SLR). We searched 6 digital libraries and also followed the snowballing technique. The data was extracted from a total of 88 finally selected papers. Findings of the SLR study were then empirically validated through a questionnaire survey in GSD industry. A total of 96 experts from 22 different countries participated in the survey. Results We have found a total of 16 barriers/challenges among which ten barriers are ranked as critical barriers/challenges. Some of the top ranked barriers are “lack of communication,” “lack of proper documentation,” “lack of compatibility,” and “architecture mismatch.” The findings of our industrial survey are mostly coherent with the SLR findings. However, there is a difference in ranks of the various barriers/challenges across the 2 data sets (SLR and industrial survey). The identified challenges need to be properly addressed by software vendors to reduce the complexity of the integration process in GSD projects. Conclusion We found that the severity of these barriers increases in large size projects. On the other hand, bespoke products are more affected by “lack of communication,” while off‐the‐shelf–based projects face integration problems due to “lack of compatibility,” “architecture mismatch,” and “wrong off the shelf product selection and customization”.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Software integration in global software development: Challenges for GSD vendors

Ilyas

Khan

2017

J Softw Evol Proc

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“…Ebert affirmed that change management is unmanageable without automated tools in a GSE environment. Niazi et al stated that global organisations should address the challenges of the existing tools used in GSE projects.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated support for reuse-based requirements engineering in global software engineering

et al. 2017

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GlobalSoftware Engineering implies a paradigm shift towards globally‐distributed development that can be advantageous, but at the cost of having to address the specific challenges that arise when the stakeholders are not colocated. Reusing assets during the initial processes of the software development life cycle could be beneficial, but automated support is essential if the expected benefits of requirements reuse are to be actually obtained. The main contribution of this paper is the specification of a collection of software features for a tool support for distributed, catalogue‐based natural‐language requirements reuse. Two additional contributions are also made: (1) an implementation of the requirements specifications previously mentioned using Drupal, a Content Management System; and (2) an empirical assessment of this tool support using distributed university students as subjects (n=57). According to our findings, the tool helps in making requirements reuse better than requirements specification from scratch and in managing traceability, is easy to use, useful, and easy to learn. In contrast, the tool is not particularly suitable for managing users and user roles.

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“…“Social software” can also be a source of confusion as they are frequently used inside and outside work context, but recent studies indicate that tools such as Skype, Twitter, etc., have been widely used in the GSD industry to provide additional communication channels (Niazi et al. 2015; Giuffrida and Dittrich 2013). …”

Section: Mapping Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

Software project management tools in global software development: a systematic mapping study

et al. 2016

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Global software development (GSD) which is a growing trend in the software industry is characterized by a highly distributed environment. Performing software project management (SPM) in such conditions implies the need to overcome new limitations resulting from cultural, temporal and geographic separation. The aim of this research is to discover and classify the various tools mentioned in literature that provide GSD project managers with support and to identify in what way they support group interaction. A systematic mapping study has been performed by means of automatic searches in five sources. We have then synthesized the data extracted and presented the results of this study. A total of 102 tools were identified as being used in SPM activities in GSD. We have classified these tools, according to the software life cycle process on which they focus and how they support the 3C collaboration model (communication, coordination and cooperation). The majority of the tools found are standalone tools (77%). A small number of platforms (8%) also offer a set of interacting tools that cover the software development lifecycle. Results also indicate that SPM areas in GSD are not adequately supported by corresponding tools and deserve more attention from tool builders.

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Empirical investigation of the challenges of the existing tools used in global software development projects

Cited by 40 publications

References 30 publications

Software integration in global software development: Challenges for GSD vendors

Software integration in global software development: Challenges for GSD vendors

Automated support for reuse-based requirements engineering in global software engineering

Software project management tools in global software development: a systematic mapping study

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