Methodological Support for Task Coordination in Global Software Engineering Projects at Product Software Companies

Abstract

Demand in performing software engineering projects globally by software companies continuously grow. Companies start to acquire other companies, build remote offices, or create partnerships with other companies from other countries. By distributing their software development activities such as development and testing processes to dispersed locations, these companies aim to reduce development costs, get closer to market proximity, or recruit young talented resources. However, they also face some challenges where cultural, knowledge, and technology diversities become the barriers in coordinating tasks among distributed resources. Consequently, a well-managed coordination mechanism is required to build productive communication, better work synchronization, a same level of understanding in customer requirements and system design, which eventually, enhance project performance. This research project proposes a method that aims to support product software companies in coordinating tasks among globally dispersed teams in software engineering projects. This is done by answering the main research question: "How can we provide methodological support for the improvement of task coordination in global software engineering projects in a product software organization?” Following the design science framework by beginning with a problem investigation throughout a literature study and various semi-structured interviews, the "GSE Task Coordination Method" is developed through the Method Association approach. The heart of this method is the task coordination mechanism itself supported by the organizational support, and the tools support that should anticipate the organizational aspects and the GSE challenges, allowing each company to make decisions to determine different mechanisms according to its situational factors. Five iterative in-depth expert interview sessions involving both scientific and practicing experts demonstrated that the GSE Task Coordination Method embraces both theoretical and practical aspects, which can be simply utilized by product software companies. Throughout the validation phase, some improvements were suggested and applied shown by the evolution of the method. As the conclusion, it can be affirmed that the GSE Task Coordination Method can support management board, line managers, and team members in coordinating between the teams in globally distributed locations. However, the effectiveness of the method to support team performance enhancements in a measured way has not been fulfilled due to time constraints.