On the Suitability of Particular Software Development Roles to Global Software Development Lane, Michael T. University of Limerick and Lero – The Irish Software Engineering Research Centre Michael.lane@ul.ie Ågerfalk, Pär J. Uppsala University, Sweden and Lero – The Irish Software Engineering Research Centre par.agerfalk@dis.uu.se Abstract Global software development surfaces various challenges and benefits that are not always present in co-located teams. The purpose of this paper is to explore a set of propositions that address the suitability of four different software development roles to Global software development (GSD). A qualitative research approach was applied to collaborations undertaken between remote counterparts playing the same development role in various GSD projects. Specific development roles were considered: business analyst, designer, developer and development-support. A framework that details the benefits and challenges of GSD was used as a basis for this research. Suitability of a role to GSD is based upon the balance of challenges and benefits discovered in that role’s case. Finally, opportunities for future research are presented. 1. Introduction Globally distributed software development (GSD), a phenomenon that emerged in the 1990’s, involves the production of software systems using a distributed set of staff. There are many configurations of GSD teams and examples range from remote sub-teams producing specific modules of a system to teams where different functional roles such as programming or business analysis are executed in different locations [1]. Teams that conduct GSD may gain certain advantages over those that are co-located. Conversely, distributed teams may encounter obstacles that are not major issues in co-located teams. A review of the published peer-reviewed literature on GSD case studies proposed a framework of the benefits and challenges related to this field [2]. This work and much of the literature that it summarized primarily used the GSD team as the unit of analysis. Given the importance of peer-to-peer interaction in GSD projects, our research used this framework to explore collaboration between individuals that had played the same development role. In addition to being a novel feature of this study, it also helped to focus the investigation. Four particular roles were selected for investigation: development support, designer, developer and business analyst. These roles were selected due to their central influence on software engineering. Based on previous research [3] and the first author’s industrial experience, a research proposition was presented and explored in relation to each role’s suitability to GSD. Clearly, other roles could be reviewed in future research efforts. All GSD situations explored involved a team within a product development organization. The need for proximity to global markets and access to diverse global experiences makes GSD attractive to the producers of product software. Hence, concentration on one type of team narrowed the research parameters to teams whose needs are aligned with the assumed benefits of GSD and thus clearly identified a target audience for the study findings. The paper proceeds as follows. First, a review of the software development roles and GSD teams is presented, followed by a discussion of the research design. Second, the analysis of the research findings is described. Finally, the relevance of this study to both industry and the research community is outlined followed by a presentation of future research opportunities. 2. Theoretical background 2.1. Development roles studied Software development teams exhibit skills such as strong technical competence, programming, quality assurance, management and good domain knowledge [4]. All team members do not have to display these skills equally – the extent to which each skill is relied upon depends upon the role being played. Software development roles are defined to execute various activities of the software lifecycle and the process in use governs these activities. 2008 IEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering 978-0-7695-3280-6/08 $25.00 © 2008 IEEE DOI 10.1109/ICGSE.2008.19 3 Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Limerick. Downloaded on February 27, 2009 at 07:52 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.