Introduction to the 1st International Workshop on Global Software Development for the Practitioner Yvonne Hsieh
Philippe Kruchten
Eve MacGregor
University of British Columbia Electrical and Computer Engineering Vancouver BC, V6T1Z4 Canada
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Deependra Moitra
Wolfgang Strigel
Christof Ebert
Infosys Technologies Bangalore, India
QA Labs Vancouver BC Canada
Alcatel Paris, France
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
challenges, from project set-up, to progress control, to day-to-day communication and even to the management of cultural diversity in teams. All of these issues can become serious obstacles and therefore require careful examination and practical solutions. Improved processes are needed [4] [3], along with careful examination of new team dynamics, people, organizational and cultural issues [9] [10] [11] [7] and innovative coordination [5] and communication strategies.
ABSTRACT This International Workshop on Global Software Development for the Practitioner (GSD2006) is held in conjunction with the 28th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2006) on May 23rd, 2006 in Shanghai, China. The workshop is motivated by the industry trend toward developing software in globally distributed settings: geographically distributed teams or outsourcing part of software development to other organizations in other parts of the world. Topics presented and discussed in the workshop focus on grounded, practical strategies and techniques that address the geographical, temporal, organizational and cultural boundaries inherent in global software projects.
The goal of this workshop is to provide a forum for researchers and professionals interested in global software development to meet and exchange ideas. In particular, this workshop takes the perspective of the practitioner and focuses on the tactics and techniques that will help software professionals navigate the unique challenges in a global development environment.
Categories and Subject Descriptors D.2.0 [Software Engineering]: General.
2. WORKSHOP THEMES The workshop solicited submissions on topics that included:
General Terms Management, Economics, Human Factors.
Keywords
Software processes and practices improvement
Organizational models and strategies
Project management (e.g., risk management, progress monitoring, quality control, configuration management)
Knowledge management
Team communication and coordination
Managing peopleware (e.g., cross-cultural conflicts, distributed collaboration)
System architecture
Productivity and quality issues
IP protection and other legal aspects
Education and training of practitioners
Software project management, global software development.
1. INTRODUCTION Over the past decade IT professionals worldwide have witnessed the flourishing of global software development (GSD) as a result of organizations outsourcing or offshoring parts or all of their development activities [1] [8] [13] [2] [6] [12]. While global software development is attractive with its offer of large talent pools and reduced labour cost, it is not the magic potion to project success. Managers and developers engaged in global software development agree that cross-site, cross-cultural projects “do not just happen.” Rather, projects are confronted by countless
3. WORKSHOP FORMAT Submissions were reviewed by members of the organizing and program committees, and the acceptance of the 15 papers included
Copyright is held by the author/owner(s) GSD’06, May 23, 2006, Shanghai, China. ACM 1-59593-085-X/06/0005.
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in this booklet was based on their relevance to the workshop themes, contribution to the state of knowledge, quality of writing and ability to provide good discussion points. All accepted papers are made available to the participants electronically prior to the workshop date. See http://seal.ece.ubc.ca/gsd2006/ for details.
[3] D. Damian and D. Zowghi, “An insight into the interplay between culture, conflict and distance in globally distributed requirements negotiations,” in Proceedings of 36th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS’03), 2003.
The workshop activities consist of presentations delivered by selected participants, followed by open discussion sessions.
[4]
A. Gopal, T. Mukhopadhyay, and M.S. Krishnan, “The role of software processes and communication in offshore software development,” Commun. ACM, vol. 45, no. 4, 2002, pp. 193-200.
Four sessions are set up: 1.
Project management issues in GSD: planning, management, configuration management, etc.,
risk
[5]
2.
Coordination in GSD: day-to-day communication and synchronization of activities across geographical and organizational boundaries
R. Heeks, S. Krishna, B. Nicholson, and S. Sahay, “Synching or sinking: global software outsourcing relationships,” IEEE Software, vol. 18, no. 2, 2001, pp. 5460.
[6]
J.D. Herbsleb and D. Moitra, “Global Software Development,” IEEE Software, vol. 18, no. 2, 2001, pp. 1620.
[7]
Y. Hsieh, E.L. MacGregor, and P. Kruchten, “The Impact of Intercultural Factors on Global Software Development,” in Proceedings of 18th Annual Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering (CCECE'05), Saskatoon, SK, 2005, IEEE.
[8]
D. Karolak, Global Software Development: Managing Virtual Teams and Environments, Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society Press, 1998.
3.
Cross-cultural issues: difficulties and opportunities in exploiting the diversity offered by GSD
4.
Case studies: hearing the successes, difficulties and failures from practitioners involved in GSD projects
A final wrap-up session at the end of the workshop will summarize the topics and issues discussed throughout the day, and outline possible future research activities.
[9] S. Krishna, S. Sahay, and G. Walsham, “Managing the crosscultural issues in global software outsourcing,” CACM, vol. 47, no. 4, 2004, pp. 62-66.
4. FURTHER INFORMATION Further information about this workshop, some of the accepted papers and discussion summaries can be found at: http://seal.ece.ubc.ca/gsd2006.
[10] P. Kruchten, “Analyzing Intercultural Factors Affecting Global Software Development,” in Proceedings of (GSD2004) 3rd International Workshop on Global Software Development, Collocated with ICSE, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2004, IEE, pp. 59-62.
Workshops on Global Software Development had been organized by D. Damian and F. Lanubile at previous ICSE conferences. See http://gsd2004.uvic.ca/ for more information.
[11] E.L. MacGregor, Y. Hsieh, and P. Kruchten, “Cultural Patterns in Software Process Mishaps: Incidents in Global Projects,” in Proceedings of Workshop on Human and Social Factors of Software Engineering (Colocated with ICSE'05), Saint-Louis, Missouri, 2005, ACM.
Acknowledgements The workshop was instigated and made possible through the support of the IEEE Computer Society and the IEEE Software magazine, which will publish a special issue on Global Software Development in late 2006.
[12] M.M. Sathyanarayan, Offshore Development--Proven Strategies and tactics for Success, 1 ed., Cupertino, CA: GlobalDev Publ., 2003.
A Few References [1] E. Carmel, Global Software Teams: Collaborating Across Borders and Time Zones, Upper Saddle River, NJ: PrenticeHall, 1999.
[13] E. Yourdon, Outsource--Competing in the Global Productivity Race, Prentice-Hall, 2004.
[2] M.F. Corbett, The Outsourcing Revolution: Why It Makes Sense and How to Do It Right, Dearborn Trade, 2004.
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