Abstract
Global Software Development (GSD) has gained significant popularity as an emerging paradigm. Companies also show interest in applying agile approaches in distributed development to combine the advantages of both approaches. However, in their most radical forms, agile and GSD can be placed in each end of a plan-based/agile spectrum because of how work is coordinated. We describe how three GSD projects applying agile methods coordinate their work. We found that trust is needed to reduce the need of standardization and direct supervision when coordinating work in a GSD project, and that electronic chatting supports mutual adjustment. Further, co-location and modularization mitigates communication problems, enables agility in at least part of a GSD project, and renders the implementation of Scrum of Scrums possible.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Damian, D., Moitra, D.: Global software development: How far have we come? IEEE Software 23, 17–19 (2006)
Canfora, G., Cimitile, A., Di Lucca, G.A., Visaggio, C.A.: How distribution affects the success of pair programming. International Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering 16, 293–313 (2006)
Agerfalk, P.J., Fitzgerald, B.: Flexible and distributed software processes: Old petunias in new bowls? Communications of the ACM 49, 26–34 (2006)
Carmel, E., Agarwal, R.: Tactical approaches for alleviating distance in global software development. IEEE Software 18, 22–29 (2001)
Holmstrom, H., Fitzgerald, B., Agerfalk, P.J., Conchuir, E.O.: Agile practices reduce distance in global software development. Information Systems Management 23, 7–18 (2006)
Ramesh, B., Cao, L., Mohan, K., Xu, P.: Can distributed software development be agile? Communications of the ACM 49, 41–46 (2006)
Paasivaara, M., Lassenius, C.: Could Global Software Development Benefit from Agile Methods? In: Casper, L. (ed.) ICGSE, International Conference on Global Software Engineering, pp. 109–113 (2006)
Nerur, S., Mahapatra, R., Mangalaraj, G.: Challenges of migrating to agile methodologies. Communications of the ACM 48, 72–78 (2005)
Erickson, J., Lyytinen, K., Siau, K.: Agile Modeling, Agile Software Development, and Extreme Programming: The State of Research. Journal of Database Management 16, 88–100 (2005)
Cohen, D., Lindvall, M., Costa, P.: An Introduction to Agile Methods. In: Zelkowitz, M.V. (ed.) Advances in Computers, Advances in Software Engineering, vol. 62. Elsevier, Amsterdam (2004)
Abrahamsson, P., Salo, O., Ronkainen, J., Warsta, J.: Agile software development methods - Review and analysis, vol. 478. VTT Publications (2002)
Beck, K., Andres, C.: Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change. Addison-Wesley, Reading (2004)
Schwaber, K., Beedle, M.: Agile Software Development with Scrum. Prentice Hall PTR, Upper Saddle River (2001)
Abrahamsson, P., Warsta, J., Siponen, M.T., Ronkainen, J.: New directions on agile methods A comparative analysis, pp. 244–254 (2003)
Farmer, M.: DecisionSpace infrastructure: agile development in a large, distributed team. Agile Development Conference, pp. 95–99 (2004)
Nisar, M.F., Hameed, T.: Agile methods handling offshore software development issues. In: Hameed, T. (ed.) International Multitopic Conference 2004, pp. 417–422 (2004)
Sulfaro, M.: Agile Practices in a Large Organization: The Experience of Poste Italiane. In: Concas, G., Damiani, E., Scotto, M., Succi, G. (eds.) XP 2007. LNCS, vol. 4536. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Salas, E., Sims, D.E., Burke, C.S.: Is there a “big five” in teamwork? Small Group Research 36, 555–599 (2005)
Layman, L., Williams, L., Damian, D., Bures, H.: Essential communication practices for Extreme Programming in a global software development team. Information and Software Technology 48, 781–794 (2006)
Mintzberg, H.: Mintzberg on Management: Inside Our Strange World of Organizations (1989)
Cockburn, A., Highsmith, J.: Agile software development: The people factor. Computer 34, 131–133 (2001)
Yin, R.K.: Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Sage Publications Inc., Thousand Oaks (2003)
Herbsleb, J.D., Mockus, A.: An empirical study of speed and communication in globally distributed software development. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 29, 481–494 (2003)
Moe, N.B., Smite, D.: Understanding Lacking Trust in Global Software Teams: A Multi-Case Study. In: Münch, J., Abrahamsson, P. (eds.) PROFES 2007. LNCS, vol. 4589, pp. 20–32. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)
Dyba, T., Dingsoyr, T.: Empirical Studies of Agile Software Development: A Systematic Review. Information and Software Technology (2008)
Fowler, M.: Using an Agile Software Process with Offshore Development (2003), http://www.martinfowler.com
Sutherland, J., Viktorov, A., Blount, J., Puntikov, N.: Distributed Scrum: Agile Project Management with Outsourced Development Teams. In: HICSS, p. 274 (2007)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Hole, S., Moe, N.B. (2008). A Case Study of Coordination in Distributed Agile Software Development. In: O’Connor, R.V., Baddoo, N., Smolander, K., Messnarz, R. (eds) Software Process Improvement. EuroSPI 2008. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 16. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85936-9_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85936-9_17
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-85934-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-85936-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)