Addressing Communication, Coordnation and Cultural Issues in Global Software Development Projects

Abstract

The field of Global Software Development has been an active area of research for the last two decades due to its enormous benefits such as lower labor cost, faster development and easy access to the skilled labor pool. Apart from these benefits, it faces some challenges like communication, coordination, trust and configuration management etc. These challenges arise primarily due to physical, cultural and time zone differences. The empirical studies highlight that the existing Global Software Development solutions do not fully meet the user needs as there are still several gaps in these solutions. Therefore, to fulfill these gaps, there is a need to develop novel frameworks that address outstanding issues. In this paper, we have attempted to address the aforesaid GSD challenges. The practitioners can benefit from our proposed framework during the execution of GSD projects. The proposed framework mainly focuses on the root causes of the two principal challenges namely the communication and cultural differences. We believe that if the team members of a software project can communicate effectively and show considerations for others by imparting due reverence to the cultural norms, then the other residual issues can easily be reduced and minimized.

A cost effective communication model for requirements elicitation in global software development

“… Ref UOC ETU ET QU PER REU TS CI EFF 1 X X ✓ ✓ ✓ X X X X 2 X X X ✓ X X X ✓ X 2 X X X ✓ X X X ✓ X 3 X X X ✓ X X X ✓ X 4 X X X ✓ X X X ✓ X 5 X X X X X …”

“…The data suggests that communication problems arise when stakeholders are not involved. Furthermore, miscommunication between the developer and the consumer causes problems with communication, coordination, and collaboration because they cannot easily understand each other's thinking 5 . A framework for better communication while collecting requirements for global software development.…”

“…Global software development communication is based on groupware technologies such as email, video conferencing, and instant messages. Long response times, poor communication, a lack of face-to-face involvement, and misunderstandings can all lead to annoyance and a loss of motivation and interest 5 . Participation is often hampered by cultural and time disparities, leading to a lack of trust and misconceptions when resolving problems.…”

Automating Test Case Generation for Android Applications using Model-based Testing

“…Sometimes various testing tasks in the manual testing are repetitive, thus making it a boring and tedious job for the testers. Automated testing helps overcome human error and makes the testing process reliable [31]. However, no tool is yet capable of full-fledged automatic testing of smartphone apps.…”

Success factors analysis for requirement elicitation in global software development paradigm: An empirical study

“…The challenges in requirement gathering are more critical in a Global Software Development (GSD) environment, where the vendors and clients are separated by geographical distance 3 . In GSD, effective communication 4,5 and proper negotiation 6 on requirements are extremely difficult due to challenges such as the language barrier, limited face to face meetings, time zone differences, and cultural variations 7 . Language barrier is considered to be a critical challenge in most research studies 8 .…”