Abstract
Abstract Context There is extensive interest in global software development (GSD) which has led to a large number of papers reporting on GSD. A number of systematic literature reviews (SLRs) have attempted to aggregate information from individual studies. Objective We wish to investigate GSD SLR research with a focus on discovering what research has been conducted in the area and to determine if the SLRs furnish appropriate risk and risk mitigation advice to provide guidance to organizations involved with GSD. Method We performed a broad automated search to identify GSD SLRs. Data extracted from each study included: (1) authors, their affiliation and publishing venue, (2) SLR quality, (3) research focus, (4) GSD risks, (5) risk mitigation strategies and, (6) for each SLR the number of primary studies reporting each risk and risk mitigation strategy. Results We found a total of 37 papers reporting 24 unique GSD SLR studies. Major GSD topics covered include: (1) organizational environment, (2) project execution, (3) project planning and control and (4) project scope and requirements. We extracted 85 risks and 77 risk mitigation advice items and categorized them under four major headings: outsourcing rationale, software development, human resources, and project management. The largest group of risks was related to project management. GSD outsourcing rationale risks ranked highest in terms of primary study support but in many cases these risks were only identified by a single SLR. Conclusions The focus of the GSD SLRs we identified is mapping the research rather than providing evidence-based guidance to industry. Empirical support for the majority of risks identified is moderate to low, both in terms of the number of SLRs identifying the risk, and in the number of primary studies providing empirical support. Risk mitigation advice is also limited, and empirical support for these items is low.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 54-78 |
| Number of pages | 25 |
| Journal | Information and Software Technology |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2014 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We found 78 advice items supported by at least three primary studies. Overall, the strength of most of the support is quite low with a majority of advice items discarded as they were supported by only a single primary study. A large proportion of the recommendations kept were related to agile methods showing the research community’s interest in this topic. The advice with the strongest support from primary studies was “Use GSD for a project only when you can achieve cost savings”, advice categorized as GSD outsourcing rationale , and supported by 89 primary studies, i.e., 73% of the primary studies in [S13] . However, as outsourcing rationale is not a common research area; we are lacking other SLR support for much of the advice identified in this category. In addition, companies have found that, although a project may actually cost more than if it was developed locally, local development is impossible because scarce expertise is unavailable [24] . Three mitigation advice items, related to infrastructure planning, communication effectiveness and intellectual property rights, were supported by three SLR studies. The match between the risks with the most support and the most supported mitigation advice is not good as only two of the top ten risks are matched with mitigation advice. See Appendix Table A4 : Top 10 risks and mitigation advice, which lists the risks and mitigation advice with the most SLR support.
Keywords
- Evidence
- Global software development
- Keywords
- Risk
- Risk mitigation
- Systematic literature review
- Tertiary review
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Software
- Information Systems
- Computer Science Applications