Follow-the-Sun Methodology in a Stochastic Modeling Perspective

Czekster, Ricardo M.; Fernandes, Paulo; Prikladnicki, Rafael; Sales, Afonso; Santos, Alan R.; Webber, Thais

doi:10.1109/icgse-w.2011.26

Cited by 3 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…This gap can be reduced using performance evaluation. • Czekster et al [2011b]: We have created a model to handle a specific type of GSD project named follow the sun, which has been used as the basis for our work. Inclusion Criteria:…”

Section: Sms Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stochastic Performance Analysis of Global Software Development Teams

Czekster

Fernandes

Lopes

et al. 2016

ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol.

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Measuring productivity in globally distributed projects is crucial to improve team performance. These measures often display information on whether a given project is moving forward or starts to demonstrate undesired behaviors. In this paper we are interested in showing how analytical models could deliver insights for the behavior of specific distributed software collaboration projects. We present a model for distributed projects using stochastic automata networks (SAN) formalism to estimate, for instance, the required level of coordination for specific project configurations. We focus our attention on the level of interaction among project participants and its close relation with team’s productivity. The models are parameterized for different scenarios and solved using numerical methods to obtain exact solutions. We vary the team’s expertise and support levels to measure the impact on the overall project performance. As results, we present our derived productivity index for all scenarios and we state implications found in order to analyze popular preconceptions in GSD area, confirming some, and refusing others. Finally, we foresee ways to extend the models to represent more intricate behaviors and communication patterns that are usually present in globally distributed software projects.

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Section: Sms Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stochastic Performance Analysis of Global Software Development Teams

Czekster

Fernandes

Lopes

et al. 2016

ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol.

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…In this context, recent studies have applied stochastic automata networks in software engineering area to evaluate software development projects (Czekster et al, 2010(Czekster et al, , 2011Fernandes et al, 2011). Besides, according to the literature review there are several challenges to simulate projects with teams geographically distributed, such as time, cost and teams composition.…”

Section: Stochastic Automata Network (San)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Czekster et al (2010) presented in recent research stochastic models for software development projects, in order to evaluate communication and availability of global software development teams. Following this context, it was created a basic stochastic model for FTS projects evaluation (Czekster et al, 2011) and it still exists opportunity to capture other important aspects of global software development projects using FTS configuration, such as handoff efficiency, teams capacity and others.…”

Section: Stochastic Automata Network (San)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using SAN formalism to evaluate Follow-The-Sun project scenarios

Santos

Sales

Fernandes

2015

Journal of Systems and Software

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“…Related works for stochastic modeling and simulations are developed through the dynamic specification of software projects [3], [4], as the usage analytical modeling for variability performance analysis of software development teams [5], [6], [7]. Stochastic Automata Networks (SAN) [8], [9] is a formalism based on Markov Chains [10] that provides an abstraction of the model description.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Setting Up a Stochastic Model for Teams Working in a Follow-the-Sun Environment

Santos

Sales

Fernandes

2012

2012 IEEE Seventh International Conference on Global Software Engineering

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Project management is an important aspect of global software development. Companies and institutions can obtain benefits by the use of performance evaluation of teams working in different sites. The objective of this work is to discuss a stochastic model definition to performance evaluation of Follow-The-Sun (FTS) projects.Follow-The-Sun (FTS) is a type of global software development which focus on projects that search for velocity by the reduction of project life cycle (time-to-market) [1] and share many challenges and issues of global software development such as coordination, cultural factors and communication issues [2].FTS challenges can be mapped through the use of analytical models for analysis of projects behaviors in order to facilitate companies and institutions decision-making process, providing a better understanding of possible issues that can occur in geographically distributed projects.Related works for stochastic modeling and simulations are developed through the dynamic specification of software projects [3], [4], as the usage analytical modeling for variability performance analysis of software development teams [5], [6], [7]. Stochastic Automata Networks (SAN) [8], [9] is a formalism based on Markov Chains [10] that provides an abstraction of the model description. Using the SAN formalism it is possible to describe a global model of a system composed by subsystems, defined as stochastic automata, which have three primitives: states, transitions and events [8].This work describes an analytical model of software development teams using members located in three different sites. The idea is to instantiate multiple sites (composed by team members) having a central FTS project controller responsible for overall control of project activities at model level. Each site is composed by a team of N members. On this perspective, we consider a team composed of one single member to a maximum size of N members attached to a site. Each site has a group of members that could be used to simulate different development velocities per site, helping the decision making process to be more efficient in terms of resource management. Team site automata represent a number of people working at a given shift and has its allocation defined by parameters.In this work, we have presented a conceptual foundation that can be used to model development teams in Follow-TheSun (FTS). The approach adopted here allows a FTS setting that can be extended to cover other behaviors or to test novel configurations. We understand that this work does not capture all important aspects of Follow-The-Sun projects such as different cultures, different languages, communication barriers and teams coordination challenges. The motivation of a future stochastic modeling exercise is to explore more scenarios and numerical analysis. Finally, it is important to keep in mind this model could be extended/modified for analysis of GSD projects in a generic point of view. REFERENCES[1] E. Carmel, Y. Dubinsky, and J. Espinosa, "Follow the sun software developmen...

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Follow-the-Sun Methodology in a Stochastic Modeling Perspective

Cited by 3 publications

References 22 publications

Stochastic Performance Analysis of Global Software Development Teams

Stochastic Performance Analysis of Global Software Development Teams

Using SAN formalism to evaluate Follow-The-Sun project scenarios

Setting Up a Stochastic Model for Teams Working in a Follow-the-Sun Environment

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