A global virtual team model to improve software development collaboration project

Information Systems and e-Business Management - Increasingly, universities across the globe are involved in collaborations at both national and international levels. In a nutshell, the...     

Leveraging global resources: a process maturity framework for managing distributed development

The popular and well-tested software process frameworks such as the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model and ISO 9001, details key process areas for software development. Focusing more on continuous improvement in code development processes, generic-process frameworks such as the CMM lack key process areas (KPA) that address capabilities for managing distributed software projects, such as establishing mutual knowledge and managing geographically dispersed social networks. We identify 24 new KPAs that address the wide-ranging capabilities needed for managing distributed software development and arrange them in an evolutionary order similar to the CMM framework. The evolutionary or phased approach in improving software management capabilities helps firms systematically assess their situations and plan for improvements. We also report the results of a statistically tested maturity assessment survey and test the overall rigor of our model against industry expert opinion and objective data collected from real-world projects implemented at SAP AG, a leading global-enterprise software firm.     

A framework for SaaS software packages evaluation and selection with virtual team and BOCR of analytic network process

Software packages evaluation and selection is one of the most important activities encountered by software as a service (SaaS) users in the high performance networked computing environment, especially for the small or medium-sized enterprises. In this paper, we propose a framework for SaaS software packages evaluation and selection by combining the virtual team (VT) and the BOCR (benefits, opportunities, costs, and risks) of the analytic network process (ANP). Different from the traditional application of the BOCR model of ANP, the proposed VT-BOCR model attempts to solve the complex ANP model and overloaded pairwise comparisons by decomposing the tasks to four parts, and performed by benefits virtual team (B-VT), opportunities virtual team (O-VT), costs virtual team (C-VT), and risks virtual team (R-VT) separately. The interactive networked media on distributed environments not only makes the proposed framework possible without the limitations of time, space, and human resources, but also can take full advantage of the talent experts who are geographically dispersed. The proposed framework also shows great potentials for aiding practitioners and researchers concerned with the cloud services.     

Leader delegation in global software teams: occurrence and effects

Global teams are an important work structure in software development projects. Managing such complex global software projects presents many challenges to traditional leadership wisdom, in particular, how, why and when the leaders should delegate responsibility and authority. Delegation is considered an important leadership component to motivate and grow subordinates. Cultural differences, skill level disparity and potential competition between different software development sites creates a management context which is much different from where traditional leadership theories were developed. This study investigates leader delegation behaviors in global software teams and explores the reasons and impact of delegation strategies on global team performance. Semi-structured interviews and a survey was used to collect data from global software team managers and members from four countries of a Fortune 100 IT service company. The results of this study include in-depth analysis of hows and whys of leader delegation in global teams and a theoretical model for analyzing global team leader delegation occurrence and effects.     

Development of a team measure for tacit knowledge in software development teams

In this paper we operationally define and measure tacit knowledge at the team-level in the software development domain. Through a series of three empirical studies we developed and validated the team tacit knowledge measure (TTKM) for software developers. In the first study, initial scale items were developed using the repertory grid technique and content analysis. In Study 2, supplied repertory grids were administered to novices and experts to establish differential items, and Study 3 validated the TTKM on a sample of 48 industrial software development teams. In developing the TTKM we explored the relationships between tacit knowledge, explicit job knowledge and social interaction and their effect on team performance as measured by efficiency and effectiveness. In addition we assess the implications for managing software development teams and increasing team performance through social interaction.     

Evolution of cognitive trust in distributed software development teams: a punctuated equilibrium model

A significant body of literature has addressed trust in distributed teams. However, several important issues such as 1) trust in distributed software development teams, 2) the evolution of cognitive trust, and 3) the role of communication media in trust development have not been adequately addressed. The objective of this paper is to address the void discussed above by conducting a longitudinal study to examine the evolution of cognitive trust among distributed software development teams from USA and Norway or Switzerland. The results suggest that cognitive trust develops in accordance with the tenets of the Punctuated Equilibrium Model (PEM). Additionally, our study also suggests that different factors are important for trust building during the different stages of a software development project. The findings contribute to the body of trust research and to practice by identifying stages in a software development project during which managerial intervention can help elevate trust levels.     

Understanding technology use in global virtual teams: Research methodologies and methods

Context

The globalisation of activities associated with software development and use has introduced many challenges in practice, and also (therefore) many for research. While the predominant approach to research in software engineering has followed a positivist science model, this approach may be sub-optimal when addressing problems with a dominant social or cultural dimension, such as those frequently encountered when studying work practices in a globally distributed team setting.The investigation of such a team reported in this paper provides one example of an alternative approach to research in a global context, through a longitudinal interpretive field study seeking to understand how global virtual teams mediated the use of technology. The study involved a large collective of faculty and support staff plus student members based in the geographically and temporally distant locations of New Zealand, the United States of America and Sweden.

Objective

Our focus in this paper is on the conduct of research in the context of global software activities, and in particular, as applied to the actions and interactions of global virtual teams. We consider the appropriateness of various methodologies and methods in enabling such issues to be addressed.

Method

We describe how we undertook a substantial field study of global virtual teams, and highlight how the adopted structuration theory, action research and grounded theory methodologies applied to the analysis of email data, enabled us to deliver effectively against our goals.

Results

We believe that the approach taken suited a research context in which situated practices were occurring over time in a highly complex domain, ensuring that our results were both strongly grounded and relevant to practice. It has resulted in the generation of substantive theory and techniques that have been adapted and applied on a pilot basis in further field settings.

Conclusion

We conclude that globally distributed teamwork presents a complex context which demands new research approaches, beyond the limited set customarily applied by software engineering researchers. We advocate experimenting with different research methodologies and methods so that we have a more rounded repertoire to address the most important and relevant issues in global software development research, with the forms of rigour that suit the chosen approach.     

软件企业实施CMM改进软件过程的研究

CMM（能力成熟度模型）是当前软件行业的重要技术,研究和实施CMM认证,有助于软件企业提高生产率。对IT界公认的软件过程改进标准CMM进行了介绍,包括其发展、内容和运用;分析了我国软件企业的现状,以及实施CMM进行软件过程改进所面临的问题;提出了中小企业改进软件过程、提高软件质量、规避软件风险的笨略。     

PBURC: a patterns-based,unsupervised requirements clustering framework for distributed agile software development

Agile software development methodologies are increasingly adopted by organizations because they focus on the client’s needs, thus safeguarding business value for the final product. At the same time, as the economy and society move toward globalization, more organizations shift to distributed development of software projects. From this perspective, while adopting agile techniques seems beneficial, there are still a number of challenges that need to be addressed; among these notable is the effective cooperation between the stakeholders and the geographically distributed development team. In addition, data collection and validation for requirements engineering demands efficient processing techniques in order to handle the volume of data as well as to manage different inconsistencies, when the data are collected using online tools. In this paper, we present “PBURC,” a patterns-based, unsupervised requirements clustering framework, which makes use of machine-learning methods for requirements validation, being able to overcome data inconsistencies and effectively determine appropriate requirements clusters for optimal definition of software development sprints.     

Project managers in global software development teams: a study of the effects on productivity and performance

Globalization is having a deep impact on today’s world economy. One of the most affected industries is the software industry. Recently, global software development (GSD) has gained a lot of attention. This new trend of producing software is influencing all software processes, including human resource management. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the implications of GSD for software project managers by analyzing project performance from different perspectives such as the 360-degree feedback evaluation. Results show that performance of GSD projects is lower than in-house projects, but apart from that, this study reveals that there are also negative consequences for software project managers, which need to be taken into account. For instance, the experiment revealed a lack of attention to tasks by software project managers and, as a consequence of this, performance losses. The main conclusions of this research may be valuable for software development organizations.     

Utilization of a systemic business process re-engineering method as a tool to improve software process quality

This paper suggests that a software process can be viewed as an instance of a business process. Therefore software process improvement might be achieved by applying the concepts of Business Process Re-engineering (BPR). BPR is introduced and the recent work of Jacobson, using object-oriented concepts to construct a BPR framework, is described. The paper critiques Jacobson's approach as being essentially reductionist, and presents an alternative approach, State-Behaviour Modelling (SBM), that utilizes systems principles in the analysis of problem situations, while generating object models. The application of SMB to model and improve a component of a software development process, is presented.     

Fostering trust in virtual project teams: Towards a design framework grounded in a TrustWorthiness ANtecedents (TWAN) schema

Several collaboration problems in virtual project teams that work in knowledge-intensive contexts can be attributed to a hampered process of interpersonal trust formation. Solutions to trust formation problems need to be based on an understanding of how interpersonal trust forms in face-to-face project teams as well as on insight into how this process differs in virtual teams. Synthesizing literature from various disciplines, we propose a model for the formation of interpersonal trust between project team members. Taking this model as a starting point, we analyse how virtual settings may alter or even obstruct the process of trust formation. One method to improve the formation of interpersonal trust in virtual settings is to facilitate the assessment of trustworthiness. This can be done by making information available about individual virtual project team members. Previous research in virtual project teams focussed principally on the medium by which information is spread, for example, by phone, mail, or videoconferencing. Most researchers failed to take the specific content of the information into account, although there is general agreement that personal, non-task-related information is important to foster trust. For this, we propose to use the antecedents of trustworthiness, which until now have mainly been used as a framework to measure trust, as a design framework instead. This framework of antecedents can also be used to determine which type of information is relevant to assess each other’s trustworthiness. We review existing literature on the antecedents of trustworthiness and extend the well-accepted antecedents of ‘ability’, ‘benevolence’ and ‘integrity’ with several other antecedents, such as ‘communality’ and ‘accountability’. Together, these form the TrustWorthiness ANtecedents (TWAN) schema. We describe how these antecedents can be used to determine which information is relevant for team members assessing others’ trustworthiness. In future research we will first verify this extended cognitive schema of trustworthiness (TWAN) empirically and then apply it to the design of artefacts or guidelines, such as a personal identity profile to support the assessment of trustworthiness in virtual project teams.     

Time windows-based team performance measures: a framework to measure team performance in dynamic environments

In this paper, we present a framework for implementing Team Performance Measures based on a temporal accuracy measure called the relative accuracy index (RAI) to evaluate and compare team performance in a command-and-control human-in-the-loop simulation. The framework allows researchers to collect and analyze team outcomes in an unbiased objective manner based on a temporal performance measure known as a Time Window. Our framework provides experimenters and subject matter experts the necessary tools to evaluate performance in terms of task demands. We also provide a sample analysis of individual and team performance using the RAI.     

Information management in the global enterprise: an organising framework

Much has been written over the last decade on managing global enterprises. While the predominant concern of this literature has been strategic in orientation, the management of information is a neglected area. By drawing on a diverse range of literature in the international business, strategic management, organization design, and information system (IS) disciplines this paper develops a conceptual framework for analysing information management in the global enterprise, providing a basis for organising existing literature on the topic and for creating a map of the field. This framework is structured around four domains: global business drivers, global business strategy, global business model and global information strategy. It highlights the role of information technology (IT) as supporting global business strategies while at the same time IT can also be a major catalyst in the globalisation process itself. In the context of the global information strategy, the paper develops a distinction between business infostructure, IT infrastructure and the IS/IT suprastructure. Significant relationships between the four domains of the framework are surfaced and an agenda for action developed.     

How to improve performance of software systems: A methodology and a case study for tuning performance

Before software systems are shipped, they are tuned to optimize their field performance. This process is called performance tuning. Performance tuning is used to find the best settings for a set of tunable, or changeable, parameters like buffer space, disk file allocation, main memory partition, I/O priority, process scheduling quantum, etc. Examples of performance measures to be optimized are: query or transaction loss, throughput rate, response time, etc. Improperly tuned systems can create field problems even if there are no software faults in the product. Hence, it is important that software systems be tuned for optimal performance before they are delivered. However, optimal performance tuning is quite complex because of: exponentially many alternatives, unknown functional relationships between parameters and performance measures, stochastically fluctuating system performance, and expensive empirical experiments. For these reasons, tuning is typically practiced as an art and depends heavily on the intuitions of experts. In this paper, we examine a method for tuning which is repeatable and produces consistently superior results across many different applications. This method, based upon Robust Experimental Design, has revolutionized design optimization in hardware systems. The methodology consists of conducting a few carefully chosen experiments and using the associated analysis technology to help extract the maximum possible information for performance optimization. Specifically we give some background on statistical experimental design and demonstrate it on an actual software system that provides network database services which had experienced occasional query losses. Focusing on nine carefully chosen parameters, 12 experiments were conducted. This number of experiments is far fewer and consequently far less costly in time and effort than what would be required for collecting the same amount of information by traditional methods. The selection of the experiments took into account ideas from accelerated life testing and ideas from the Robust Experimental Design. Based on the analysis of this data, new settings for the parameters in software system were implemented. All tests done with the new settings have shown that the query loss problem has been totally controlled. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Towards aspect based requirements mining for trace retrieval of component-based software management process in globally distributed environment

Information Technology and Management - Stakeholder satisfaction is a significant aspect of component-based product development. Satisfaction level of stakeholder varies due to diverse reviews and...     

System dynamics in software project management: towards the development of a formal integrated framework

Successful software development is becoming increasingly important to many companies. However, most projects fail to meet their targets, highlighting the inadequacies of traditional project management techniques in this unique setting. Despite breakthroughs in software engineering, management methodologies have not improved, and the major opportunities for better results are now in this area. Poor strategic management and related human factors have been cited as a major cause for failures, which traditional techniques cannot incorporate explicitly. System dynamics (SD) aims to model the behaviour of complex socio-economic systems; there has been a number of applications to software project management. SD provides an alternative view in which the major project influences are considered and quantified explicitly. Grounded on a holistic perspective it avoids consideration of the detail required by traditional tools, looking at the key aspects of the general project behaviour. However, if SD is to play a key role in software project management it needs to be embedded within the traditional decision-making framework. The authors developed a conceptual integrated model, the SYDPIM, which has been tested and improved within a large on-going software project. Such a framework specifies the roles of SD models, how they are to be used within the traditional management process, how they exchange information with the traditional models, and a general method to support model development.     

A framework to improve communication during the requirements elicitation process in GSD projects

Achieving a shared understanding of requirements is difficult in any situation, even more so in global software development projects. In such environments, people must deal not only with the lack of face to face communication, but also with other issues such as time difference, cultural diversity and a large amount of information originating from different sources throughout the world. Obtaining the right requirements therefore implies extra effort. In order to minimize such problems, we propose a framework that focuses on analyzing the factors that may be problematic in global software development and which suggests a set of strategies to improve the requirements elicitation process in such environments. In this paper, we describe the different phases of our framework and present the results of an experiment that test part of this framework. The results indicate that applying some of the strategies proposed in the framework seems to positively affect the stakeholders’ satisfaction with regard to communication. Moreover, the quality of the written software requirements specifications seems to be better as well when using those strategies.