The 24-Hour Knowledge Factory Paradigm: The Evolving Model for Offshoring based on Strategic, Economic, Legal, Health, Technical, and Other Considerations

The 24-Hour Knowledge Factory paradigm involves 3 (or more) collaborating centers, each located in a different continent. Individuals at each center work from 9 am to 5 pm in that country, and then pass the work-in-progress to the next collaborating center to enable round-theclock performance in a manner somewhat akin to the deployment of three shifts in the manufacturing sector. The 24-Hour Knowledge Factory is relevant for structured and semi-structured applications in many knowledge-based industries including accounting, legal, design, and development. There is a growing array of examples from healthcare and other domains where off-site professionals have been able to provide better results than on-site professionals, thereby validating that many tasks can be more effectively performed using the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory approach. The gradual adoption of this paradigm is motivated by several considerations. In 2007, the World Health Organization concluded that working at night is a probable cause of breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men. Attempts by US state governments and even the federal government to discourage outsourcing are unlikely to succeed for multiple reasons, and the notion of “hybrid outsourcing” will gain momentum over time. Plus there are the advantages of developing products and services in a shorter timeframe; furthermore, these products and services can command broader appeal in the global marketplace. A detailed study was conducted at IBM to compare the performance of a co-located team and a distributed team, and the performance of the latter team exceeded initial expectations. The key results from this study will be discussed in this session

Marco para la asignación de paquetes de trabajo en entornos de desarrollo global de software

En el ámbito de las tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones, la externalización por offshoring es una práctica consistente en la distribución de trabajo a centros de producción más allá de las fronteras de un determinado país. Esta práctica, unida al fenómeno de la globalización, ha transformado profundamente los procesos de la ingeniería del software y ha dado lugar a un paradigma denominado GSD (Global Software Development). En este paradigma los ingenieros y los equipos de desarrollo se encuentran geográficamente distribuidos por el planeta y utilizan tecnologías y herramientas colaborativas para la producción del software. Más allá de los aspectos beneficiosos y perjudiciales de este paradigma, del estudio de la literatura relacionada se puede concluir que, para mejorar el rendimiento en proyectos GSD, es necesario contar con herramientas de gestión maduras que tengan en consideración todas las fuerzas presentes en este tipo de proyectos. Una de las actividades iniciales de la gestión de proyectos GSD es la asignación de paquetes de trabajo. Esta actividad tiene un importante impacto en el desarrollo posterior del proyecto y conlleva la toma de decisiones complejas. Por ello, esta tesis doctoral está dirigida a proporcionar a los gestores de proyectos GSD un marco metodológico para la asignación de paquetes de trabajo. La resolución del problema se ha abordado a través de un enfoque multidisciplinar prestando especial atención a aspectos no directamente relacionados con la ingeniería del software, como son la gestión competencial y la gestión de la interculturalidad. La solución planteada proporciona un marco para la asignación de paquetes de trabajo en proyectos GSD, que es adaptable a las peculiaridades de cada organización o proyecto y que proporciona las métricas adecuadas para la evaluación de los factores implicados en dicha asignación. Para el desarrollo de esta tesis se ha definido una metodología de investigación sólida e integral, que ha incluido el análisis sistemático de la literatura relevante y la integración de metodología cuantitativa y cualitativa. La última fase del diseño de investigación consiste en una validación empírica del marco diseñado para verificar la utilidad del mismo. Los datos obtenidos de dicha validación indican que la utilización del marco para la asignación de paquetes de trabajo en entornos GSD contribuye a una mejora en dicho proceso. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In the area of information technology services and development, offshoring outsourcing is the practice of distributing work to workers outside the national borders of the host country. This practice, together with the globalization phenomenon, has deeply transformed the software engineering processes and has led to a paradigm named GSD (Global Software Development). GSD teams are geographically distributed teams which make use of collaborative technologies and tools to produce software. In addition to the positive and negative aspects of this paradigm, the study of the literature indicates that the success of GSD projects requires mature management tools that take into consideration all the forces interacting within such environments. One of the activities in the initial phases of a GSD project is the allocation of work packages. This activity has a relevant impact in the subsequent development of the project and entails complex decisions. Therefore, this thesis is aimed at the definition of a methodological framework for the allocation of work packages. The resolution of the problem has been approached from a multidisciplinary point of view taking in consideration aspects not belonging to software engineering such as competence paradigm and cultural management. The proposed solution provides a framework to support the allocation of work packages in GSD projects that can be tailored to the concrete situation of each organization or project and that provides the most suitable metrics for the assessment of the different factors involved in the allocation. The development of this thesis has followed a sound and consistent research methodology that has included a systematic literature review and qualitative methods such as nominal group technique and Delphi. In the last phase of the research methodology an empirical validation has been performed to verify the applicability of the framework. The data obtained from the validation indicate that the application of the framework for the allocation of work packages in GSD environments introduces a relevant improvement of the aforementioned process