Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
SLR also identified that the use of agile practices in GSD provides a number of benefits
including increased project communication, improved project management, improved
productivity, increased trust, increased team motivation, increased project visibility,
increased team morale, improved knowledge sharing, and improved customer focus etc
[29].
2.2 Research Context
Communication, coordination, and collaboration processes are at the heart of much
software development [10]. Temporal, geographical and socio-cultural distances can
however, make GSD communication, coordination and control processes difficult
[15] and research is needed to provide strategies to deal with these challenges [3].
Some project managers have attempted to use agile practices to reduce GSD risks that
impact on project communication, coordination and collaboration processes [23].
Xiaohu [5] mentions that the use of agile practices can minimize GSD communication
delays and increase communication quality. Holmstrom et al [3] claim that using agile
practices enhances GSD project communication and, as a consequence, reduces geo-
graphical, temporal and socio-cultural distances. Mak and Krutchen [10] claim that
agile practices improve the efficiency and quality of GSD task coordination by en-
couraging frequent, lightweight informal communication in addition to formal com-
munication. Holmstrom et al [3] note that the main challenge of a GSD project is to
maintain good communication, and that, the careful incorporation of some agile prac-
tices can enhance project communication and reduce GSD risks that impact commu-
nication, coordination and control processes. Despite some discussion of the benefits
of using agile methods in GSD, there is no clear description or understanding of how
the use of agile practices can reduce GSD risks and improve project communication,
coordination or collaboration processes. To address this research challenge, the broad
objective of our research is to explore how the effective use of agile practices can
reduce some GSD challenges and improve project coordination processes.
3 Coordination
Coordination is considered to be a key organizational activity in any software devel-
opment. A traditional co-located software development team usually builds up the
coordination of their different tasks in a number of ways. A highly idealized tradi-
tional co-located development team has a shared view of work processes and coordi-
nation is achieved either because of shared defined processes, or by acquiring a
common set of habits and vocabulary over time [12]. Herbsleb [12] suggests that
through frequent formal and informal interactions, co-located team members have a
clear idea of who has what sort of expertise, and how responsibilities are allocated
throughout the development team. The development team uses informal communication
along with formal instructions throughout the development process. But geographical,
temporal and socio-cultural distances make GSD communication, coordination and
control process difficult and they require more development time than their co-located
development counterpart [13, 15]. Herbsleb et al [13] comment that a distributed
