Applying Q-methodology to analyse the success factors in GSD |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Białowieża, Poland;2. Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa, Poland;3. Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland;4. Jagiellonian University - Institute of Environmental Sciences, Kraków, Poland;1. Information and Computer Science Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia;2. Lero – The Irish Software Research Centre, Department of Computer Science and Information Systems, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland\n;1. Alarcos Research Group, Institute of Technologies and Information Systems, University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Paseo de la Universidad, 4, Ciudad Real (13071), Spain;2. Department of Informatics, University of Bari “Aldo Moro” (UniBa), Via Edoardo Orabona, 4, Bari (70125), Italy;3. AQCLab Software Quality Laboratory, Camino de Moledores, s/n, Ciudad Real (13051), Spain;4. Unidad Central del Valle del Cauca (UCEVA), Cra 27 A No. 48 - 144 Km 1 salida Sur, Tuluá (763022), Colombia |
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| Abstract: | ContextThe context of this paper is Global Software Development (GSD) which is a current trend concerning the development of software in a distributed manner throughout different countries. This paradigm has several advantages, but unfortunately there are a number of challenges that hinder projects’ successful development.ObjectiveThe main goal of this paper is to discover which factors affect the success of GSD projects and how these are ranked by researchers and practitioners.MethodThis paper analyses the relevant success factors reported in literature. These were collected by conducting a literature review, as a result of which 39 GSD success factors were selected. Q-methodology was then followed to conduct a survey from which the opinions of 21 experts in GSD were collected.ResultsThe data indicated that the best ranked GSD success factors are staff motivation, skilled human resources and the identification of roles and responsibilities. The lowest scores were, surprisingly, language barriers, time zone differences between sites, cultural differences and geographical distance which, to date, have frequently been considered by researchers as the most influential factors in GSD. This study additionally shows the results according to the different points of view of the respondents involved and the context of the projects.ConclusionThis study indicates that there are different points of view as regards which issues are most important to success when setting up a GSD project. For instance, some experts prefer a knowledge focus, while others prefer a project management approach in which the most important issues are those related to management (risks, coordination) and so on.The results obtained have also shown that the challenges of GSD are changing, since the critical issues were initially related to the various types of distances (geographical, temporal, socio-cultural, language). However, there is now a greater concern for the team members’ features and skills. |
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