Coordination in Global Software Development - Challenges, associated threats, and mitigating practices

Context: Global Software Development (GSD) is an emerging trend in today " s software world in which teams are geographically dispersed, either in close proximity or globally. GSD provides certain advantages to development companies like low development cost, access to cheap and skilled labour etc. This type of development is noted as a more risky and challenging as compared to projects developed with teams under same roof. Inherently the nature of GSD projects are cooperative in which many software developers work on a common project, share information and coordinate activities. Coordination is a fundamental part of software development. GSD comprises different types of development systems i.e. insourcing, outsourcing, nearshoring, or farshoring, whatever the types of development systems selected by a company there exist the challenges to coordination. Therefore the knowledge of potential challenges, associated threats to coordination and practices to mitigate them plays a vital role for running a successful global project. Objective: This study deals with the identification of challenges and threats to coordination in GSD as well as the practices to mitigate them. Furthermore, we will examine that which of them is reported in Systematic literature Review (SLR) is experienced by the practitioners through survey. This will help us to identify the commonalities and gaps between literature and industry. Methods: In order to answer our research questions and fulfil our aims and objectives, we initially conducted the systematic literature review. For that we analyze the articles published from the year 2001 onward. On the basis of SLR we identified the challenges, associated threats and the mitigation strategies of coordination in GSD. During the SLR we used different authenticated databases like conducted the survey in order to confirm that the listed challenges, associated threats and the mitigation strategies of coordination in GSD from the SLR are reported by the practitioners or not. Result: On the basis of SLR of the articles published between the years 2001 to 2011 we have got 6 challenges, 50 associated threats, and 52 related challenges. We established a list and categorize the related threats and practices for each challenge. The result from survey shows that the challenges, associated threats we have listed are also addressed by the practitioner in survey and no more challenges and threats are suggested. But for the practices, the practitioner realized 3 more additional practices. Conclusion: The result shows that the data collected through SLR is also reported by practitioners …