Toward successful agile requirements change management process in global software development: a client–vendor analysis

Abstract

Requirements change management (RCM) is an important and complicated phase in the agile for the software development process. The objective of this study was to identify and analyse the factors that can positively affect the agile RCM (ARCM) process in the context of global software development (GSD). To this end, a questionnaire survey was carried out with researcher and practitioner participants working in the field of GSD. From the 56 survey respondents, a total of 20 factors that can positively influence the ARCM activities in GSD were identified. The authors also performed a client-vendor-based analysis to investigate the significance of the considered factors for different organisation types. Additionally, they compared the data collected from researchers and practitioners. The comparison results (r s (20) = 0.076) revealed that there exists a positive correlation between the rankings in each data set. The investigated factors were mapped to ten project management book of knowledge areas, and the mapping results revealed that human resource management is the most significant knowledge area amongst the investigated factors. The findings of this study provide a robust framework to assist GSD firms in implementing ARCM activities.

Factors influencing the requirements engineering process in offshore software development outsourcing environments

“…One possible threat towards the validity of this paper is that, due to the limited time and resources, the sample size of the survey questionnaire ( n = 123) might not be strong enough to justify the validity of the reported factors. However, based on different other existing studies [33, 35, 65, 66 ], this is a representative sample to justify the results and discussion of this study.…”

“…There might be a possible threat towards the validity of the SFs mapping process into Ramasubbu [64 ] framework categorises, as we used the informal scaling approach. However, our mapping process is justifiable by considering the same mapping process used in other studies [15, 20, 65 ].…”

Prioritization-Based Taxonomy of Global Software Development Challenges: A FAHP Based Analysis

“…Lack of control at overseas sites [2], [5] Ch15 Asymmetry in processes, policies, and standards [3], [7], [11]…”

“…Global Software Development (GSD) is a "plan of action in which the knowledge workers preform the software development activities beyond the geographical, cultural and temporal boundaries" [1]. Software industry adopts GSD as it offers access to skilled human resources at a relatively low cost [2,3]. For example, Khan et al [4] indicated that GSD costs less than one third in developing countries compared with developed countries.…”

A fuzzy analytical hierarchy process to prioritize the success factors of requirement change management in global software development

“…Besides the importance of RCM in the GSD environment, little empirical research has been conducted to address the problems faced by the practitioners. Lai and Ali, 17 Ramzan and Ikram, 52 Akbar et al, 53 Kamal et al, 54 and Shafiq et al 1 underlined that less effort had been directed towards developing the RCM tools and techniques in the GSD context. Anwer et al 55 mentioned that eight out of 10 software firms working in GSD faced RCM problems owing to poor planning and ineffective RCM standards and tools.…”