Flexible Global Software Development (GSD): Antecedents of Success in Requirements Analysis

Globalization of software development has resulted in a rapid shift away from the traditional collocated, on-site development model, to the offshoring model. Emerging trends indicate an increasing interest in offshoring even in early phases like requirements analysis. Additionally, the flexibility offered by the agile development approach makes it attractive for adaptation in globally distributed software work. A question of significance then is what impacts the success of offshoring earlier phases, like requirements analysis, in a flexible and globally distributed environment? This article incorporates the stance of control theory to posit a research model that examines antecedent factors such as requirements change, facilitation by vendor and client site-coordinators, control, and computer-mediated communication. The impact of these factors on success of requirements analysis projects in a “flexible” global setting is tested using two quasi-experiments involving students from Management Development Institute, India and Marquette University, USA. Results indicate that formal modes of control significantly influence project success during requirements analysis. Further, facilitation by both client and vendor site coordinators positively impacts requirements analysis success

Learning From the Case Studies, How Global Software Development Process is Executed in an Agile Method Environment

. The biggest challenge in Global Software Development (GSD) is the efficiency of time to develop. GSD provides a guidance to use the process along with up-front analysis method like unified process or waterfall method. Although, it gives a benefit through comprehensive documentation and its clearness, it gives inhibits the organization which wants use GSD but in a rush. Agile methods claim an efficient and the effective approach to software development. This paper reports on how organizations combine the GSD process with agile methods like eXtreme Programming (XP), Scrum, Agile Unified Process (Agile UP), Feature Driven Development (FDD), and Microsoft Solution Framework Agile (MSF Agile). The paper uses case study to get organization experiences and describe useful practices for the organization that want to implement GSD with an agile method.

Dimensions of Consistency in GSD: Social Factors, Structures and Interactions

Peer reviewe

Integrated Geomatics Surveying and Data Management in the Investigation of Slope and Fluvial Dynamics

In mountain environments, slope and fluvial dynamics often interact, and their relationship can be investigated through an integrated methodological approach. Landslides are a source of supplying sediments into riverbeds and can interact or interrupt the water course. Water courses can trigger or re-activate slope movements. The complexity of investigating the interaction between the two dynamics needs a complementarity of methods and techniques, combining remote and proximal sensing, geotechnical in situ surveys, and repositories and catalogue datasets. This leads to a synergistic use of all the heterogeneous data from different fields and formats. The present paper provides a literature review on the approaches and surveying procedures adopted in the investigation of slope and fluvial dynamics and highlights the need to improve the integrated management of geospatial information complemented by quality information. In this regard, we outline a geodatabase structure capable of handling the variety of geoscientific data available at different spatial and temporal scales, with derived products that are useful in integrated monitoring tasks. Indeed, the future adoption of a shared physical structure would allow the merging and synergistic use of data provided by different surveyors as well as the effective storing and sharing of datasets from a monitoring perspective

Evaluation of Exposure to Arsenic in Residential Soil

In response to concerns regarding arsenic in soil from a pesticide manufacturing plant, we conducted a biomonitoring study on children younger than 7 years of age, the age category of children most exposed to soil. Urine samples from 77 children (47% participation rate) were analyzed for total arsenic and arsenic species related to ingestion of inorganic arsenic. Older individuals also provided urine (n = 362) and toenail (n = 67) samples. Speciated urinary arsenic levels were similar between children (geometric mean, geometric SD, and range: 4.0, 2.2, and 0.89–17.7 μg/L, respectively) and older participants (3.8, 1.9, 0.91–19.9 μg/L) and consistent with unexposed populations. Toenail samples were < 1 mg/kg. Correlations between speciated urinary arsenic and arsenic in soil (r = 0.137, p = 0.39; n = 41) or house dust (r = 0.049, p = 0.73; n = 52) were not significant for children. Similarly, questionnaire responses indicating soil exposure were not associated with increased urinary arsenic levels. Relatively low soil arsenic exposure likely precluded quantification of arsenic exposure above background

ECSCW 2013 Adjunct Proceedings The 13th European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work 21 - 25. September 2013, Paphos, Cyprus

This volume presents the adjunct proceedings of ECSCW 2013.While the proceedings published by Springer Verlag contains the core of the technical program, namely the full papers, the adjunct proceedings includes contributions on work in progress, workshops and master classes, demos and videos, the doctoral colloquium, and keynotes, thus indicating what our field may become in the future