Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
How Can Agile Practices Minimize Global Software
Development Co-ordination Risks?
Emam Hossain
1
, Muhammad Ali Babar
2
, and June Verner
3
1
UNSW- NICTA, Australian Technology Park
Sydney, Australia
Emam.Hossain@nicta.com.au
2
Lero, University of Limerick
Castletroy, Limerick, Ireland
malibaba@lero.ie
3
UNSW, Sydney, Australia
June.Verner@gmail.com
Abstract.
The distribution of project stakeholders in Global Software Develop-
ment (GSD) projects provides significant risks related to project communication,
coordination and control processes. There is growing interest in applying agile
practices in GSD projects in order to leverage the advantages of both approaches.
In some cases, GSD project managers use agile practices to reduce project distri-
bution challenges. We use an existing coordination framework to identify GSD
coordination problems due to temporal, geographical and socio-cultural distances.
An industry-based case study is used to describe, explore and explain the use of
agile practices to reduce development coordination challenges.
Keywords:
Agile, Global Software Development, Coordinating Mechanisms.
1 Introduction
Rapid advances in computer networks, telecommunications and internet technologies
have provided an infrastructure that supports Global Software Development (GSD) as
a new software development paradigm. GSD has gained significant popularity; it is
promoted as a means of reducing time to market, increasing productivity, improving
quality and gaining cost effectiveness and efficiency [1]. Despite the expected bene-
fits of GSD, there are a number of challenges in practice [2]. In particular GSD is
normally characterized by stakeholders with different national and organizational
cultures, located in separate geographic locations and time zones, using information
and communication technologies to collaborate. Such conditions usually result in
major risks in relation to team communication, coordination, control, infrastructure
incompatibility, conflicting expectations, and difficulty in building trust [3]. Thus, a
GSD project manager needs a number of risk mitigation strategies to assist in manag-
ing such a project.
Agile Software Development (ASD) has gained significant popularity because it
promises to handle requirements changes throughout the development life cycle,
promotes extensive collaboration between customers and developers, and supports
