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

Control, Process Facilitation, and Requirements Change in Offshore Requirements Analysis: The Provider Perspective

Process, technology, and project factors have been increasingly driving organizations to offshore early software development phases, such as requirements analysis. This emerging trend necessitates greater control and process facilitation between client and vendor sites. The effectiveness of control and facilitation has, however, not been examined within the context of requirements analysis and change. In this study, we examine the role of control and facilitation in managing changing requirements and on success of requirements gathering in the Indian offshore software development environment. Firms found that control by client-site coordinators had a positive impact on requirements analysis success while vender site-coordinators did not have similar influence. Process facilitation by client site-coordinators affected requirements phase success indirectly through control. The study concludes with recommendations for research and practice

Considerations for Effective Requirements Analysis in Offshore Software Development Projects: Lessons from Multi-method Research

Offshore software development using geographically distributed teams is an accepted practice in software development today. However, software development companies have largely only offshored the software development lifecycle’s coding and testing phases. However, lately, offshoring the requirements analysis (RA) phase has become increasingly viable for several reasons including the software industry’s maturation and improved communication technologies. However, successfully evaluating this highly interactive phase between geographically dispersed client and provider teams requires special considerations. In this paper, we present practical insights garnered from conducting experiments and surveys of IS professionals from the Indian software industry and from extensively examining the literature. Our findings confirm that, subject to certain best practices, one can effectively conduct RA in software projects offshore. We present these practices as lessons learned and provide related recommendations for industry and academia

Control, Process Facilitation, and Requirements Change in Offshore Requirements Analysis: Indian IT Provider Perspective

Process, technology, and project factors have been increasingly driving organizations to offshore early software development phases, such as requirements analysis. This emerging trend necessitates greater control and process facilitation between client and vendor sites. The effectiveness of control and facilitation has, however, not been examined within the context of requirements analysis and change. In this study, we examine the role of control and facilitation in managing changing requirements and on success of requirements gathering in the Indian offshore software development environment. Firms found that control by client-site coordinators had a positive impact on requirements analysis success while vender site-coordinators did not have similar influence. Process facilitation by client site-coordinators affected requirements phase success indirectly through control. The study concludes with recommendations for research and practice

Investigating an ‘Agile-Rigid’ Approach in Globally Distributed Requirements Analysis

The global software development environment brings with itself abundant business opportunities as well as challenges in terms of coordination, communication and control. Recent years have also witnessed the growth of the agile movement. To address the global software development challenges there is a need to combine the flexibility offered by the growing agile development approaches with the rigidity offered by the traditional plan-based approaches. This paper reports an exploratory quasi-experimental study, which investigates the performance of requirements analysis projects in an ‘agile-rigid’ distributed environment. The study yields several interesting conclusions that can assist organizations in managing their global software projects more effectively. Our experiment indicates that project monitoring and control, project communication, and process facilitation between peer teams significantly influence the success of such projects. Creation of an agile-rigid environment can help organizations mitigate various risks inherent in globally distributed software development

Deep learning based automated epidermal growth factor receptor and anaplastic lymphoma kinase status prediction of brain metastasis in non-small cell lung cancer

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of developing a deep learning (DL) algorithm for classifying brain metastases from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) into epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangement groups and to compare the accuracy with classification based on semantic features on imaging. Methods: Data set of 117 patients was analysed from 2014 to 2018 out of which 33 patients were EGFR positive, 43 patients were ALK positive and 41 patients were negative for either mutation. Convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture efficient net was used to study the accuracy of classification using T1 weighted (T1W) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequence, T2 weighted (T2W) MRI sequence, T1W post contrast (T1post) MRI sequence, fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) MRI sequences. The dataset was divided into 80% training and 20% testing. The associations between mutation status and semantic features, specifically sex, smoking history, EGFR mutation and ALK rearrangement status, extracranial metastasis, performance status and imaging variables of brain metastasis were analysed using descriptive analysis [chi-square test (χ2)], univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis assuming 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: In this study of 117 patients, the analysis by semantic method showed 79.2% of the patients belonged to ALK positive were non-smokers as compared to double negative groups (P = 0.03). There was a 10-fold increase in ALK positivity as compared to EGFR positivity in ring enhancing lesions patients (P = 0.015) and there was also a 6.4-fold increase in ALK positivity as compared to double negative groups in meningeal involvement patients (P = 0.004). Using CNN Efficient Net DL model, the study achieved 76% accuracy in classifying ALK rearrangement and EGFR mutations without manual segmentation of metastatic lesions. Analysis of the manually segmented dataset resulted in improved accuracy of 89% through this model. Conclusions: Both semantic features and DL model showed comparable accuracy in classifying EGFR mutation and ALK rearrangement. Both methods can be clinically used to predict mutation status while biopsy or genetic testing is undertaken

Research review: Globally distributed requirements engineering and agility

Yadav, V ORCiD: 0000-0001-5237-1186Getting requirements right is considered the most important and difficult part of the software development process. As organizations and stakeholders become more globally distributed, getting requirements right will pose a greater challenge. Today, organizations are offered a sophisticated array of multimedia meeting systems with video, audio and computer support for remotely specifying requirements. In the context of present day’s global workforce scenario, distributed requirements engineering is now being explored by researchers as well as industry to build an understanding of the dynamics of this highly interactive phase in a globally distributed context. Accordingly, this paper addresses the timely need of reviewing the literature on globally distributed requirements engineering. Findings highlight paucity of literature in this area. Additionally, the paper presents an innovative approach to globally distributed requirements engineering by reviewing the literature on the applicability of agile development approach in a globally distributed setting. Contributing to academic and practitioner literature, the author discusses emerging directions for future research in this area

A flexible management approach for globally distributed software projects

Yadav, V ORCiD: 0000-0001-5237-1186Management of globally distributed software projects is one of the biggest challenges of the IT industry worldwide. Distributed software development involves teams working in different geographic locations and even in different countries. These distributed projects may involve teams from the same organization or have collaborative teams from different organizations that work together on a specific project. The dimension of distribution greatly enhances the complexity of managing these projects in globalized work environments. Therefore, there is a need to explore novel solutions to address this growing challenge. Research and practice have accentuated the need to embrace flexibility in management practices. This can potentially offer novel insights in unraveling the distributed work complexity. This paper is conceptual in nature and its objective is to propose a flexible management approach for globally distributed software projects. It also presents an in-depth review of literature and makes a case for embracing flexibility in management practices to address the challenges of distribution in today’s global work environments

Social entrepreneurship: Innovative solutions to social problems

Yadav, V ORCiD: 0000-0001-5237-1186The International Journal of Rural Management (IJRM) is committed to engag- ing with its global audience, contributing authors of the current and past issues, reviewers, editorial review board members and all other stakeholders. The journal aims to bring forward innovative thinking to build the field of rural management and to make it more useful for researchers as well as practitioners. The objective of this editorial is to highlight the topic of social entrepreneurship as a fertile area of potential research and briefly introduce the contents of the current issue

Technology-enabled inclusive innovation: A case from India

Yadav, V ORCiD: 0000-0001-5237-1186India is a country with a population of 1.2 billion and around 400 million poor people remain excluded from the formal economy. India does not offer a social security number for its residents. Rather, there exist variant forms of identification documents. In 2009, the Government of Indian initiated the Aadhaar project to create biometric technology enabled unique identities for Indian residents. In a short 8-year span, the project has made remarkable progress by enrolling more than 600 million people. The objective of this paper is twofold- (i) to review the emerging literature on inclusive innovation and (ii) to examine the case of Aadhaar Project in India from the perspective of inclusive innovation. Findings of the study reveal that the Aadhaar project has the potential to create an ecosystem of inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship, which can be beneficial for developing economies like India