Temporal Distance Issues and their Mitigation Strategies in GSD: An Empirical Study

Abstract

GSD has several advantages that make it easier for software companies to follow this trend, like skillful workers, lower costs, and an improved marketplace. To achieve the benefits mentioned above, distributed teams must communicate effectively. Communication is a major problem for development, especially in GSD. Communication issues are classified based on temporal, geographical, and sociocultural distances. The temporal distance problem affects more GSD operations than the other hazards combined. Organizations can mitigate these obstacles and attain the desired quality by employing mitigation strategies while adhering to budget and time constraints. The authors of this study conducted a systematic literature review to identify temporal distance issues and their respective mitigation strategies to develop a conceptual framework. Additionally, a questionnaire interview with closed-ended questions was conducted. Without an empirical study, it is difficult to determine the precise relationship between temporal distance issues and mitigation strategies. The primary objectives of this study are to experimentally evaluate the proposed conceptual framework and the effects of selected risk mitigation measures. This study identified forty-four mitigation techniques and nine temporal distance challenges with a focus on a GSD-based environment, empirical research was conducted using data collected from Pakistani software companies. The findings of this study indicate, with a p-value of 0.01, that various mitigation techniques significantly impact various temporal distance issues. Based on the findings, software organizations can employ appropriate mitigation techniques to address temporal distance issues and reduce the failure rate of software projects.