Project Quality of Off-Shore Virtual Teams Engaged in Software Requirements Analysis

Abstract

The off-shore software development companies in countries such as India use a global delivery model in which initial requirement analysis phase of software projects get executed at client locations to leverage frequent and deep interaction between user and developer teams. Subsequent phases such as design, coding and testing are completed at off-shore locations. Emerging trends indicate an increasing interest in off-shoring even requirements analysis phase using computer mediated communication. We conducted an exploratory research study involving students from Management Development Institute (MDI), India and Marquette University (MU), USA to determine quality of such off-shored requirements analysis projects. Our findings suggest that project quality of teams engaged in pure off-shore mode is comparable to that of teams engaged in collocated mode. However, the effect of controls such as user project monitoring on the quality of off-shored projects needs to be studied further.

Reverse Presentations

“…Table 2 gives a high-level guideline for selecting the best-fit strategy by comparing • Reduction of costs (e.g., for travelling) • Lower potential for misunderstandings the two basic location strategies in terms of suitability (criteria in alphabetical order) and major advantages. It has to be added that the feasibility of a pure distributed capturing strategy in OSD is still subject of controversial discussions (Nath et al 2008;Yadav et al 2009). …”

“…On the other hand, RE is a communication-intensive task and, therefore, heavily affected by the above mentioned distance challenges (Edwards and Sridhar 2005). The great number and diversity of these challenges indicate that the total offshoring of RE (which means that all RE tasks are performed in a distributed mode) can be considered a risky endeavor and is still uncommon in practice (Nath et al 2008;Yadav et al 2009). …”

Considerations for Effective Requirements Analysis in Offshore Software Development Projects: Lessons from Multi-Method Research

“…While much research has addressed best practices for successfully offshoring later phases of software development (e.g., Dibbern, Goles, Hirschheim, & Jayatilaka, 2004;Piccoli, Powell, & Ives, 2004;Yadav & Gupta, 2008), few studies have addressed offshoring the RA phase (Yadav, 2011) even though several researchers have identified a need to do so (e.g., Robinson, 1990;Ocker, Hiltz, Turoff, & Fjermestad, 1995;Edwards & Sridhar, 2005;Evaristo, Watson-Manheim, & Audy, 2005;Nath et al, 2008;Yadav et al, 2009;Yadav et al, 2013). With continuing improvements in communication technologies and best practices for software development, research has projected offshoring to become more apparent throughout the entire lifecycle, including in the RA phase (Evaristo et al, 2005;Nath et al, 2008;Yadav et al, 2013).…”

“…Successfully executing this interactive phase requires special considerations that research has not yet fully explored. In this paper, we present lessons learned and recommendations for successfully offshoring the RA phase of software development based on findings from multiple empirical studies (Yadav, Adya, Nath, & Sridhar, 2007;Nath, Sridhar, Adya, & Malik, 2008;Yadav, 2008;Yadav, Adya, Sridhar, & Nath, 2009.…”

“…With continuing improvements in communication technologies and best practices for software development, research has projected offshoring to become more apparent throughout the entire lifecycle, including in the RA phase (Evaristo et al, 2005;Nath et al, 2008;Yadav et al, 2013). Demonstrations of successfully using conferencing technologies to support requirements determination in an asynchronous distributed environment, such as in Ocker et al (1995), further point to the feasibility of offshoring the RA phase.…”