Ita Richardson

Global software development and collaboration: barriers and solutions

While organisations recognise the advantages offered by global software development, many socio-technical barriers affect successful collaboration in this inter-cultural environment. In this paper, we present a review of the global software development literature where we highlight collaboration problems experienced by a cross-section of organisations in twenty-six studies. We also look at the literature to answer how organisations are overcoming these barriers in practice. We build on our previous study on global software development where we define collaboration as four practices related to agreeing, allocating, and planning goals, objectives, and tasks among distributed teams. We found that the key barriers to collaboration are geographic, temporal, cultural, and linguistic distance; the primary solutions to overcoming these barriers include site visits, synchronous communication technology, and knowledge sharing infrastructure to capture implicit knowledge and make it explicit.

Entrepreneurship education: A mechanism for engaging and exchanging with the small business sector

Purpose – The focus of this paper is to highlight the synergies and mutual benefits associated with a range of entrepreneurship education initiatives for a combination of internal and external stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a description of four entrepreneurship education initiatives in operation at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Detail on the objectives of the initiatives, the content, delivery, assessment and benefits of these initiatives is provided. Findings – Entrepreneurship and enterprising activity are widely regarded as instrumental for economic growth, for balanced regional development and for the creation of jobs. Educational institutions need to ensure that graduates are capable of acting in an enterprising manner in the workplace either as an entrepreneur or as an intrapreneur in paid employment. This double objective can materialise through the provision of entrepreneurship education, within either a business or a technical course. Additionally, these same programmes can also be an effective mechanism for the provision of targeted training programmes for skills enhancement in the owner/manager and the creation and facilitation of linkages and working relationships with the small business community. Involvement in technology transfer and industry‐based research activities also provides benefits to the small firm. Practical implications – The paper presents challenges for educators and educational institutions on how they perceive and address the needs of their stakeholders by extending the traditional paradigm of what constitutes the role of an educational institution. The need to engage with external stakeholders in programme design and delivery requires commitment by educational institutions and requires educators to change their knowledge and teaching perspective. The findings have implications on how entrepreneurship education initiatives are designed, delivered and assessed to meet the needs of different stakeholders. Originality/value – This paper and its conclusions add to the debate on the importance of linking educational institutions and industry, especially the small firm sector, by suggesting a number of methods of collaboration which mutually benefit a number of stakeholders.

A Process Framework for Global Software Engineering Teams

Context: Global Software Engineering (GSE) continues to experience substantial growth and is fundamentally different to collocated development. As a result, software managers have a pressing need for support in how to successfully manage teams in a global environment. Unfortunately, de facto process frameworks such as the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI(R)) do not explicitly cater for the complex and changing needs of global software management. Objective: To develop a Global Teaming (GT) process area to address specific problems relating to temporal, cultural, geographic and linguistic distance which will meet the complex and changing needs of global software management. Method: We carried out three in-depth case studies of GSE within industry from 1999 to 2007. To supplement these studies we conducted three literature reviews. This allowed us to identify factors which are important to GSE. Based on a gap analysis between these GSE factors and the CMMI(R), we developed the GT process area. Finally, the literature and our empirical data were used to identify threats to software projects if these processes are not implemented. Results: Our new GT process area brings together practices drawn from the GSE literature and our previous empirical work, including many socio-technical factors important to global software development. The GT process area presented in this paper encompasses recommended practices that can be used independently or with existing models. We found that if managers are not proactive in implementing new GT practices they are putting their projects under threat of failure. We therefore include a list of threats that if ignored could have an adverse effect on an organizations competitive advantage, employee satisfaction, timescales, and software quality. Conclusion: The GT process area and associated threats presented in this paper provides both a guide and motivation for software managers to better understand how to manage technical talent across the globe.

Culture in Global Software Development - A Weakness or Strength?

Cultural diversity is assumed to be a fundamental issue in global software development. Research carried out to date has raised concerns over how to manage cultural differences in global software development. Our empirical research in India, a major outsourcing destination, has helped us investigate this complex issue of global software development. A triangulated study based on a questionnaire, telephonic interviews and structured face-to-face interviews with 15 Project Managers and Senior Executives has revealed how they cope with the demands of cultural differences imposed by a geographically distributed environment. This research study brings forward various techniques initiated by these project managers to deal with cultural differences that exist within geographically distributed software development teams. We also discuss different strategies and make a case to explain how to build on and take advantage of cultural differences that exist in global software development.

SPI Models: What Characteristics are Required for Small Software Development Companies?

There is a need for small indigenous software companies to improve their software process. Consequently, much has been written highlighting the deficiencies in the more popular Software Process Improvement (SPI) models where the small company is concerned. However, there has been little discussion about the characteristics that should be included in SPI models to make them useful for the small company. In this paper, the author proposes an SPI model for use in small software development companies. The eight characteristics that were required to exist in the model are examined and reasons for their successful inclusion presented.

Project Management within Virtual Software Teams

When implementing software development in a global environment, a popular strategy is the establishment of virtual teams. The objective of this paper is to examine the effective project management of this type of team. In the virtual team environment problems arise due to the collaborative nature of software development and the impact distance introduces. Distance specifically impacts coordination, visibility, communication and cooperation within a virtual team. In these circumstances the project management of a virtual team must be carried out in a different manner to that of a team in a single-site location. Results from this research highlighted six specific project management related areas that need to be addressed to facilitate successful virtual team operation. Organizational structure, risk management, infrastructure, process, conflict management and team structure and organization. Additional related areas are the sustained support of senior management and the provision of effective infrastructure

Identification of Software Process Knowledge Management

The effective and explicit management of knowledge has been presented as a key factor in the survival of companies in current business environments. The software development business is no different. The authors of this paper investigated two software processes in three small software development companies to identify the explicit and tacit knowledge management in these processes. They examine their findings under the four knowledge management categories of creation, storing, sharing and leverage. In many cases, while the knowledge exists, it is not made explicit within the organization. Making the knowledge explicit should make the software processes more effective. Therefore, the authors make recommendations for the small software development company as to how to do this. Whether this approach can ultimately help the small software development company to move to higher levels of maturity is a research question which needs to be further explored. Copyright

Software process matrix: a small company SPI model

Because small company structure is very different to that of large organizations, models which help them to improve their software process must be created with this in mind. The author of this paper has developed and verified such a model, based on quality function deployment, the software process matrix. A summary of its development and verification is presented. Subsequently, the matrix was validated in two small software development companies during a longitudinal study and the paper discusses an analysis of some of the processes which changed as a result of its implementation—organization, customer management and project management. This provides some insight into the software process of the companies, both prior to and at the end of the research period. Generalization and validity to other companies, large and small, is considered. Copyright

Lean/Agile Software Development Methodologies in Regulated Environments – State of the Art

Choosing the appropriate software development methodology is something which continues to occupy the minds of many IT professionals. The introduction of “Agile” development methodologies such as XP and SCRUM held the promise of improved software quality and reduced delivery times. Combined with a Lean philosophy, there would seem to be potential for much benefit. While evidence does exist to support many of the Lean/Agile claims, we look here at how such methodologies are being adopted in the rigorous environment of safety-critical embedded software development due to its high regulation. Drawing on the results of a systematic literature review we find that evidence is sparse for Lean/Agile adoption in these domains. However, where it has been trialled, “out-of-the-box” Agile practices do not seem to fully suit these environments but rather tailored Agile versions combined with more plan-based practices seem to be making inroads.

Global Software Engineering: A Software Process Approach

Our research has shown that many companies are struggling with the suc- cessful implementation of global software engineering, due to temporal, cultural and geographical distance, which causes a range of factors to come into play. For exam- ple, cultural, project management and communication difficulties continually cause problems for software engineers and project managers. While the implementation of efficient software processes can be used to improve the quality of the software prod- uct, published software process models do not cater explicitly for the recent growth in global software engineering. Our thesis is that global software engineering factors should be included in software process models to ensure their continued usefulness in global organisations. Based on extensive global software engineering research, we have developed a software process, Global Teaming, which includes specific practices and sub-practices. The purpose is to ensure that requirements for suc- cessful global software engineering are stipulated so that organisations can ensure successful implementation of global software engineering.