Investigating integration challenges and solutions in global software development

Abstract

One of the major challenges of Global Software Development (GSD) is associated with overcoming integration problems that remain hidden throughout development and surface at the end of a project. Incompatibilities and other integration complexities can lead to extra costs, delays, lowered quality and even failure of a GSD project. A solid integration strategy can be an effective solution to overcome integration challenges, but this requires a good understanding of what causes failure and how the failures can be mitigated. The aim of this study is to investigate integration problems that occurred in different phases of GSD, and successful integration practices with their relative importance through an extensive literature review and a Delphi survey. As a result, a prioritized list of failure and success factors is obtained. The findings are applicable for planning new projects at an early stage of GSD or improving ongoing projects.

Software integration model for Global Software Development

“…In GSD, considering the integration problem late will make the project more problematic and will also increase the overall development cost [10]. Zafar, Ali et al [6] have identified 14 success and 11 failure factors, as shown in table-1, regarding product integration in GSD environment.…”

“…One of the biggest challenge, which have got very little attention and which needs further investigation and research, is the Software/Products Integration in GSD [6,7]. In the process of software development, integration is one of the most important phases because most of the hidden problems of other phases start appearing in this phase [7].…”

“…Zafar et al [6] have conducted a systematic review and Delphi survey to investigate Integration challenges and solutions in GSD. They have pointed out that integration challenges remain hidden in the beginning of the projects but create problems as we move toward the end.…”

“…Each team in GSD will be responsible to work on there own component without having a complete picture of the overall system [6]. Similarly each team may be using a different process model and standards which will further complicate the integration process at the end [8].…”

Developing self-adaptive automotive systems

“…The big challenge for car manufacturers (often called OEMs) and first tier system suppliers is the integration on the base of a weak knowledge about the components. In [40] the authors find as the main reason of integration problems "Poorly communicated module objectives or requirements". While the cited study considers mainly aspects of human behavior in integration, the car industry answers to the increasing safety, reliability and traceability requirements with a sophisticated development process organization that will be briefly discussed below.…”