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

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS THAT INFLUENCING SAFETY PROGRAM PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIAN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS: CASE STUDIES

The construction industry is characterized as one with a poor safety culture globally. To achieve better site safety performance, emphasis has been placed on implementing effective safety programs. The main aim of this paper is to identify the Critical Success Factors that influencing safety program performance in Malaysian construction projects. In order to accomplish the aim of this study, the following objective was taken into consideration which is to study the factors contributing to the success of implementing safety program in construction projects. The study was carried out within Penang and Kedah States; it was basically focused on the respondents who involve in construction. Of 40 sets questionnaires were distributed, only 36 sets questionnaire returned and analyzed. After all the raw data obtained, the data were then inputted and analyzed with the software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, version 17). The results of this study showed that good communication shall be treated as the most important factor, followed by clear and realistic goals, safety committee/safety officer, sufficient resource allocation and continuous participation of employee. On the other hand, work load/pressure was perceived as the least important factors. Apparently, these five factors have been given appropriate consideration in the construction sites and should be implied if it is not emphasized in construction industry in Malaysia.CSFs; Safety programme, Construction projects, Malaysia

Sociocultural Learning: A Perspective on GSS-Enabled Global Education

Virtual teams are rapidly developing in organisations of the new economy. As educators, we have a responsibility to ensure that our students are appropriately prepared for work in the virtual workspace, where teams may cross time, geographical, and cultural boundaries. In this article, the culturally sensitive theory of sociocultural learning is combined with GSS (Group Support Systems) in an illustration of how cross-cultural, globally distributed virtual teams of students located in The Netherlands, Greece, and Hong Kong work on vested interest projects. Finally, a set of critical success factors that inform virtual learning contexts is derived from our findings and recommendations are made for operational practice in the virtual work space

Managing globally distributed software development using virtual teams: A Middle East case study

Software project development is increasingly becoming geographically distributed especially in today’s global business environment. In order to build quality software faster andat a lower cost, companies in industrialised countries are turning to globally distributed software development projects. Emerging countries such as India and Israel are known to have large pools of highly trained software engineers at relatively low cost. However, recent trends have shown that new locations are emerging as developmental sites. Examples of those locations in the Middle East include Oman, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. The main attraction of those countries is that they are close to the Arab market. However, distributed development also entails a number of risks and problems, for instance in terms of communication and knowledge transfer between sites, resulting in project failures. Being the project manager of a team that includes remote members has additional challenges compared to managing co-located team members. These projects face particular challenges that need careful managerial attention.This research aims to examine how globally distributed software development projects are managed in the Middle East. The main question to be answered was “How do companies in the Middle East successfully manage and organise software development in a globally distributed environment?”. We outline the factors that were perceived as important by project managers. We also look at how culture affects the operation of virtual teams in a globally distributed software development environment in the Middle East taking religion into consideration. To understand how these factors influence the success of globally distributed software development projects in the Middle East, we conducted a qualitative case study research involving three different companies operating in Dubai, Oman, Abu Dhabi, India and Pakistan. We used semi-structured interviews as the primary sources of information as these allow highly personalised data. This research outlines the following specific project management-related areas that need to be addressed to facilitate successful virtual team operation: Cross-cultural collaboration • Tools and technology used to facilitate GSD • An infrastructure that facilitates communication between virtual teams • Effective project managementComputingM. Sc. (Computing

Globally Distributed Teams: The Between-team Barriers That Impede The Successful Delivery Of Agile Software Development

Software development projects fail far too often, costing companies billions in revenue, loss of the intended purpose and damage to both customers and suppliers in the process (A. Shenhar & V. Holzmann, 2017a). Understanding the challenge of ever-failing globally distributed software development projects is the goal and research conducted in this dissertation. The vision guiding the direction of this research is What are the betweenteam barriers that impede the successful delivery of Agile software development in Globally Distributed Teams? Through the literature review, a model was created and refined. A Mixed-Method Sequentially Replicated Case Study Research was performed to determine within-case and cross-case findings. The research covers five replicated cases from various industries, including Food & Beverage, Oil & Gas, Insurance, and Healthcare. Using a Thematic Analysis process, the project leadership was questioned and interviewed. The results of the qualitative research were compared and contrasted with Likert data collected from the team members. Analysis performed included significant qualitative findings, most impactful factors, and alignment between the leaders and team members. The research found that all factors can be vital enough to cause a project to fail. The research found that the process factor is significantly less impactful than initially thought, and the people (the team) factor are clear success criterion. The research provides value to current and future project owners by providing them with criteria to evaluate their projects. The evaluation against criteria allows a project owner to adjust or create the conditions for success. Future research should be capable of expanding on this research by creating practical guides and specific tools for project creation where the projects have a greater success rate

Management of Globally Distributed Component-Based Software Development Projects

Globally Distributed Component-Based Development (GD CBD) is expected to become a promising area, as increasing numbers of companies are setting up software development in a globally distributed environment and at the same time are adopting CBD methodologies. Being an emerging area, the management of GD CBD has evolved primarily on an ad hoc basis. At present, little is known about how to successfully organise and manage GD CBD. To fill this gap, this research explores the management of GD CBD and reveals factors that contribute to success in GD CBD projects. Data are drawn from several successful GD CBD projects at LeCroy, SAP and TCS, compared with one unsuccessful project at Baan. The results suggest that inter-site coordination, appropriate tools and technologies, social ties, knowledge sharing and components management are the main factors that contribute to success in GD CBD. Lastly, a framework assisting managers to organize and manage CBD in GD environments is offered.Julia Kotlarsky graduated in 1996 as an engineer in Industrial Engineering and Management from Technion, the Israeli Institute of Technology. In 1997-1999, during study for her master’s degree, she received the highest level of fellowship at the Technion and worked as a teaching assistant for a number of undergraduate and graduate courses at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management. At the same period she worked as a lecturer in ORT College. During her graduate studies at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, The Netherlands, in 2001 she received a Marie Curie Scholarship from the European Commission for visiting Henley Management College, Henley-on-Thames, UK, where she had a visiting position for five months. In 2001-2003 she also visited Florida International University in Miami, USA, the University of Technology Sydney in Sydney, Australia, and the Management Development Institute in Gurgaon, India. She conducted research in leading companies, which included SAP, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Baan and LeCroy Corporation. Currently she is a lecturer in Information Systems at Warwick Business School, UK. In 2003 she won the Philip Law Scholarship from the European Case Clearing House for writing a teaching case about globally distributed development of component-based software. She has published in International Journal of Production Research, European Journal of Information Systems and has given a number of papers in refereed conferences. Julia is working in the area of management of globally distributed software development projects. Her interests include component-based design, knowledge sharing, and the social and technical aspects of the management of globally distributed software development projects

Internal and contextual factors, knowledge processes and performance: From the Chinese provider's perspective

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Expert Systems with Applications. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2011 Elsevier B.V.This paper explores the influences of two internal factors, i.e. supplier team’s IT-based skills and communication with client’s team, and two contextual factors, i.e. supplier team’s understanding of client’s culture and collaboration with client’s team, on knowledge processes and performance in global sourcing of IT services from the Chinese provider’s perspective. Knowledge processes are characterized by knowledge sharing, knowledge-based coordination and expertise management, and performance is measured by product success and personal satisfaction. Data have been collected in 13 companies in Xi’an Software Park, with 26 in-depth, semi-structured interviews held with top and middle managers, and 200 structured questionnaires distributed to knowledge workers who are involved in global sourcing projects. The results indicate that supplier team’s IT-based skills, communication with client’s team, cultural understanding of client’s culture and collaboration with client’s team are positively associated with knowledge process and performance. Also, knowledge sharing, knowledge-based coordination and expertise management are found to be crucial for those influential factors to function positively and contribute to the performance. The findings of this study suggest that the effects of key factors on knowledge processes and performance in global sourcing of IT services appear to transcend the social and cultural differences; however, contextual factors seem to have more significant influences on knowledge processes and performance in global sourcing of IT services.National Natural Science Foundation of Chin

Contextual factors, knowledge processes and performance in global sourcing of IT services: An investigation in China

Copyright @ 2011, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Reuse of this article has been approved by the publisher.In this paper, the authors explore the influences of two major contextual factors—supplier team members’ cultural understanding and trust relationship—on knowledge processes and performance in global sourcing of IT services. The authors discuss a joint investigation conducted by a cross-cultural research team in China. Cultural understanding is measured by individualism with guanxi and mianzi, two Chinese cultural concepts, and trust relationship is measured by adjusting trust, a notion reflecting the uniqueness of the Chinese people. Knowledge processes are characterized by knowledge sharing. Performance is measured by the outcomes of global sourcing, which is represented by product success and personal satisfaction. Data are collected in 13 companies in Xi’an Software Park, with 200 structured questionnaires distributed to knowledge workers. The results of quantitative data analysis indicate that cultural understanding influences trust relationship greatly, as well as knowledge sharing and performance in global sourcing of IT services. Trust relationship significantly impacts knowledge sharing, whereas trust relationship and knowledge sharing have no impact on performance. This study suggests that special aspects of the Chinese context have significant direct impacts on knowledge processes while no direct and immediate impacts on performance in global sourcing of IT services.National Natural Science Foundation of China, Program for Humanity and Social Science Research, Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University in China and Brunel University's Research Development Fund