PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a model of the 24‐h software development process to help software project managers assess the profitability of a 24‐h development configuration and to select the optimal partnering sites. The model also helps the customer‐support divisions of software firms to decide which customer requests need to be performed using the 24‐h development mode.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents a graphical representation of the 24‐h software development process. Highlighting the importance of interaction times between two sites and the role of product‐, process‐, and site‐related factors that influence its value, the paper adopts the method of pair‐wise comparison of factors as done in the case of analytical hierarchy process and proposes a multiplicative model for its estimation. The software development time and cost are thereafter estimated by using site‐specific values of work hours, compensation package, and productivity. The approach is used to determine the economic viability of 24‐h development and make optimum site selection for a number of decision‐making situations.FindingsThe results obtained from applying the models to hypothetical, but realistic problems, with different values for site‐ and personnel‐specific factors to prove the ability of the model to be used in real‐life situations.Research limitations/implicationsThe proposed model does not consider effects of factors like multiple interactions, reworks, and errors in communication.Originality/valueA circular representation of the 24‐h software development process, the multiplicative model for estimating the length of interaction time, and the time and cost of development in such a process are the main contributions of the paper.

Globally distributed software development teams face extraordinary communication and coordination problems due to spatial, temporal, and cultural separation between team members. Using the dyadic model of coordination, the paper proposes a coordination index that encapsulates the coordination difficulties in global software development. The coordination index is derived from four other indicescoupling index, need index, effectiveness index, and time-zone index. While a discrete-event simulation model is used to determine the time-zone index for all possible temporal separations, two rounds of questionnaire surveys were administered among researchers and practitioners world-wide to determine the need and the effectiveness indices. The important factors affecting inter-site coordination were shortlisted after the first round. In the second round, weights were assigned to the short-listed factors by making a pair-wise comparison between them. The paper also demonstrates how the coordination index, so derived, can be used for a few project planning decisions.