Applying global software development approaches to building high-performing software teams

The rapid progress of communication technologies combined with the growing competition for talents and knowledge has made it necessary to reassess the potential of distributed development which has significantly changed the landscape of the IT industry introducing a variety of cooperation models and making notable changes to the software team work environment. Along with this, enterprises pay more attention to teams’ performance improvement, employing emerging management tools for building up efficient software teams, and trying to get the most out of understanding factors which significantly impact a team’s overall performance. The objective of the research is to systematize factors characterizing high-performing software teams; indicate the benefits of global software development (GSD) models positively influencing software teams’ development performance; and study how companies’ strategies can benefit from distributed development approaches in building high-performing software teams. The thesis is designed as a combination of a systematic literature review followed by qualitative research in the form of semi-structured interviews to validate the findings regarding classification of GSD models’ benefits and their influence on the development of high-performing software teams. At a literature review stage, the research (1) introduces a team performance factors’ model reflecting the aspects which impact the effectiveness of development teams; (2) suggests the classification of GSD models based on organizational, legal, and temporal characteristics, and (3) describes the benefits of GSD models which influence the performance of software development teams. Within the empirical part of the study, we refine the classification of GSD models’ benefits based on the qualitative analysis results of semi-structured interviews with practitioners from IT industry, form a comparison table of GSD benefits depending on the model in question, and introduce recommendations for company and team management regarding the application of GSD in building high-performing software teams. IT corporations, to achieve their strategic goals, can enrich their range of available tools for managing high-performing teams by considering the peculiarities of different GSD models. Company and team management should evaluate the advantages of the distributed operational models, and use the potential and benefits of available configurations to increase teams’ performance and build high-performing software teams

Analysis and measurement of internal usability metrics through code annotations

Nowadays, usability can be meant as an important quality characteristic to be considered throughout the software development process. A great variety of usability techniques have been proposed so far, mostly intended to be applied during analysis, design and final testing phases in software projects. However, little or no attention has been paid to the analysis and measurement of usability in the implementation phase. Most of the time, usability testing is traditionally executed in advanced stages. However, the detection of usability flaws during the implementation is of utmost importance to foresee and prevent problems in the utilization of the software and avoid significant cost increases. In this paper, we propose a feasible solution to analyze and measure usability metrics during the implementation phase. Specifically, we have developed a framework featuring code annotations that provides a systematic evaluation of the usability throughout the source code. These annotations are interpreted by an annotation processor to obtain valuable information and automatically calculate usability metrics at compile time. In addition, an evaluation with 32 participants has been carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of our approach in comparison to the manual process of analyzing and measuring internal usability metrics. Perceived satisfaction was also evaluated, demonstrating that our approach can be considered as a valuable tool for dealing with usability metrics during the implementation phaseThis work was partially supported by the Madrid Research Council (P2018/TCS-4314

Understanding coordination in global software engineering: A mixed-methods study on the use of meetings and Slack

Given the relevance of coordination in the field of global software engineering, this work was carried out to further understand coordination mechanisms. Specifically, we investigated meetings and the collaboration tool Slack. We conducted a longitudinal case study using a mixed-methods approach with surveys, observations, interviews, and chat logs. Our quantitative results show that employees in global projects spend 7 h 45 min per week on average in scheduled meetings and 8 h 54 min in unscheduled meetings. Furthermore, distributed teams were significantly larger than co-located teams, and people working in distributed teams spent somewhat more time in meetings per day. We found that low availability of key people, absence of organizational support for unscheduled meetings and unbalanced activity from team members in meetings and on Slack were barriers for effective coordination across sites. The positive aspects of using collaboration tools in distributed teams were increased team awareness and informal communication and reduced the need for e-mail. Our study emphasizes the importance of reflecting on how global software engineering teams use meetings and collaboration tools to coordinate. We provide practical advice for conducting better meetings and give suggestions for more efficient use of collaboration tools in global projects.publishedVersio

Students as co-producers in a multidisciplinary software engineering project: addressing cultural distance and cross-cohort handover

This article reports on an undergraduate software engineering project in which, over a period of two years, four student teams from different cohorts developed a note-taking app for four academic clients at the students’ own university. We investigated how projects involving internal clients can give students the benefits of engaging in real software development while also giving them experience of a student-staff collaboration that has its own benefits for students, academics, and the university more broadly. As the university involved is a Sino-Foreign university located in China, where most students are Chinese and most teaching staff are not, this ‘student as co-producer’ approach interacts with another feature of the project: cultural distance. Based on analysis of notes, reports, interviews, and focus groups, we recommend that students should be provided with communicative strategies for dealing with academics as clients; universities should develop policies on ownership of student-staff collaborations; and projects should include a formalised handover process. This article can serve as guidance for educators considering a ‘students as co-producers’ approach for software development projects

Management Strategies for Adopting Agile Methods of Software Development in Distributed Teams

Between 2003 and 2015, more than 61% of U.S. software development teams failed to satisfy project requirements, budgets, or timelines. Failed projects cost the software industry an estimated 60 billion dollars. Lost opportunities and misused resources are often the result of software development leaders failing to implement appropriate methods for managing software projects. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies software development managers use in adopting Agile methodology in the context of distributed teams. The tenets of Agile approach are individual interaction over tools, working software over documentation, and collaboration over a contract. The conceptual framework for the study was adapting Agile development methodologies. The targeted population was software development managers of U.S.-based companies located in Northern California who had successfully adopted Agile methods for distributed teams. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with 5 managers and a review of project-tracking documentation and tools. Data analysis included inductive coding of transcribed interviews and evaluation of secondary data to identify themes through methodological triangulation. Findings indicated that coaching and training of teams, incremental implementation of Agile processes, and proactive management of communication effectiveness are effective strategies for adopting Agile methodology in the context of distributed teams. Improving the efficacy of Agile adoption may translate to increased financial stability for software engineers across the world as well as accelerate the successful development of information systems, thereby enriching human lives

Organization Global Software Development Challenges of Software Product Quality

Leaders of global software development (GSD) processes in organizations have been confronting low software product quality. Managers of these processes have faced challenges that have been affecting customer satisfaction and that have resulted in negative social impacts on public safety, business financial performance, and global economic stability. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory multiple case study was to discover a common understanding shared by managers in Canadian GSD organizations of how to meet software product quality goals and enhance customer satisfaction. The conceptual framework for the study was based on Deming\u27s 14 principles of quality management. The purposeful sample included 30 knowledgeable participants who worked in Canada as GSD managers. Semistructured interviews conducted through telephone and audioconference tools, along with the review of related documents, were used to gather data. Eight themes emerged from the data analysis: developing a clear purpose and work principles, improving processes and employee skills, developing adequate personnel management strategies, promoting autonomy and personal worker development, formulating life cycle and development techniques, identifying challenges, formulating solutions, and focusing on product quality. The research findings have implications for positively influencing social change through the provision of methods and process knowledge to GSD organizational leaders. This information consists of best management and industry practices that can be applied to achieve software product quality and customer satisfaction, create management systems, maintain a competitive advantage, and prevent global software development project failures

Distributed software development in an offshore outsourcing project: A case study of source code evolution and quality

Context: Offshore outsourcing collaborations can result in distributed development, which has been linked to quality-related concerns. However, there are few studies that focus on the implication of distributed development on quality, and they report inconsistent findings using different proxies for quality. Thus, there is a need for more studies, as well as to identify useful proxies for certain distributed contexts. The presented empirical study was performed in a context that involved offshore outsourcing vendors in a multisite distributed development setting. Objective: The aim of the study is to investigate how quality changes during evolution in a distributed development environment that incurs organizational changes in terms of number of companies involved. Method: A case study approach is followed in the investigation. Only post-release defects are used as a proxy for external quality due to unreliable defect data found pre-release such as those reported during integration. Focus group meetings were also held with practitioners. Results: The results suggest that practices that can be grouped into product, people, and process categories can help ensure post-release quality. However, post-release defects are insufficient for showing a conclusive impact on quality of the development setting. This is because the development teams worked independently as isolated distributed teams, and integration defects would help to better reflect on the impact on quality of the development setting. Conclusions: The mitigation practices identified can be useful information to practitioners that are planning to engage in similar globally distributed development projects. Finally, it is important to take into consideration the arrangement of distributed development teams in global projects, and to use the context to identify appropriate proxies for quality in order to draw correct conclusions about the implications of the context. This would help with providing practitioners with well-founded findings about the impact on quality of globally distributed development settings.Partially supported by the Swedish Knowledge Foundation in Sweden under the grant 20120200 (2013-2016) and Ericsson Software Researc

Handover of managerial responsibilities in global software development : a case study of source code evolution and quality

Studies report on the negative effect on quality in global software development (GSD) due to communication and coordination-related challenges. However, empirical studies reporting on the magnitude of the effect are scarce. This paper presents findings from an embedded explanatory case study on the change in quality over time, across multiple releases, for products that were developed in a GSD setting. The GSD setting involved periods of distributed development between geographically dispersed sites as well as a handover of project management responsibilities between the involved sites. Investigations were performed on two medium-sized products from a company that is part of a large multinational corporation. Quality is investigated quantitatively using defect data and measures that quantify two source code properties, size and complexity. Observations were triangulated with subjective views from company representatives. There were no observable indications that the distribution of work or handover of project management responsibilities had an impact on quality on both products. Among the product-, process- and people-related success factors, we identified well-designed product architectures, early handover planning and support from the sending site to the receiving site after the handover and skilled employees at the involved sites. Overall, these results can be useful input for decision-makers who are considering distributing development work between globally dispersed sites or handing over project management responsibilities from one site to another. Moreover, our study shows that analyzing the evolution of size and complexity properties of a product’s source code can provide valuable information to support decision-making during similar projects. Finally, the strategy used by the company to relocate responsibilities can also be considered as an alternative for software transfers, which have been linked with a decline in efficiency, productivity and quality

Distributed Software Development in an Offshore Outsourcing Project : A Case Study of Source Code Evolution and Quality

Context: Offshore outsourcing collaborations can result in distributed development, which has been linked to quality-related concerns. However, there are few studies that focus on the implication of distributed development on quality, and they report inconsistent findings using different proxies for quality. Thus, there is a need for more studies, as well as to identify useful proxies for certain distributed contexts. The presented empirical study was performed in a context that involved offshore outsourcing vendors in a multisite distributed development setting. Objective: The aim of the study is to investigate how quality changes during evolution in a distributed development environment that incurs organizational changes in terms of number of companies involved. Method: A case study approach is followed in the investigation. Only post-release defects are used as a proxy for external quality due to unreliable defect data found pre-release such as those reported during integration. Focus group meetings were also held with practitioners. Results: The results suggest that practices that can be grouped into product, people, and process categories can help ensure post-release quality. However, post-release defects are insufficient for showing a conclusive impact on quality of the development setting. This is because the development teams worked independently as isolated distributed teams, and integration defects would help to better reflect on the impact on quality of the development setting. Conclusions: The mitigation practices identified can be useful information to practitioners that are planning to engage in similar globally distributed development projects. Finally, it is important to take into consideration the arrangement of distributed development teams in global projects, and to use the context to identify appropriate proxies for quality in order to draw correct conclusions about the implications of the context. This would help with providing practitioners with well-founded findings about the impact on quality of globally distributed development settings.Partially supported by the Swedish Knowledge Foundation in Sweden under the grant 20120200 (2013-2016) and Ericsson Software Researc