Software architecture design in global software development: An empirical study

Outi Sievi-Korte; Ita Richardson; Sarah Beecham

doi:10.1016/j.jss.2019.110400

Software architecture design in global software development: An empirical study

Outi Sievi-Korte
, Ita Richardson
, Sarah Beecham^*

^*Tämän työn vastaava kirjoittaja

Tietotekniikka

Tutkimustuotos: Artikkeli › Tieteellinen › vertaisarvioitu

35 Sitaatiot (Scopus)

56 Lataukset (Pure)

Abstrakti

In Global Software Development (GSD), the additional complexity caused by global distance requires processes to ease collaboration difficulties, reduce communication overhead, and improve control. How development tasks are broken down, shared and prioritized is key to project success. While the related literature provides some support for architects involved in GSD, guidelines are far from complete. This paper presents a GSD Architectural Practice Framework reflecting the views of software architects, all of whom are working in a distributed setting. In-depth interviews with architects from seven different GSD organizations revealed a complex set of challenges and practices. We found that designing software for distributed teams requires careful selection of practices that support understanding and adherence to defined architectural plans across sites. Teams used Scrum which aided communication, and Continuous Integration which helped solve synchronization issues. However, teams deviated from the design, causing conflicts. Furthermore, there needs to be a balance between the self-organizing Scrum team methodology and the need to impose architectural design decisions across distributed sites. The research presented provides an enhanced understanding of architectural practices in GSD companies. Our GSD Architectural Practice Framework gives practitioners a cohesive set of warnings, which for the most part, are matched by recommendations.

Alkuperäiskieli	Englanti
Artikkeli	110400
Julkaisu	Journal of Systems and Software
Vuosikerta	158
DOI - pysyväislinkit	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2019.110400
Tila	Julkaistu - 1 jouluk. 2019
OKM-julkaisutyyppi	A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Rahoitus

The work of the first author was supported by the Academy of Finland. This work was partially supported (second and third author) with the financial support of the Science Foundation Ireland grant 13/RC/2094 and co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund through the Southern & Eastern Regional Operational Programme to Lero – the Irish Software Research Centre (www.lero.ie). Dr. Outi Sievi-Korte is an Assistant Professor (tenure track) in Software Engineering at Tampere University, Finland. She joined then Tampere University of Technology at the start of 2009 to conduct her PhD thesis research on using meta-heuristics for optimized and automated software architecture design. She has since defended her dissertation in 2011, and received a Post-Doctoral Researcher grant from the Academy of Finland in 2014 for research in the field of global software development. Her research interests lie with data-driven software development, utilizing AI and meta-heuristics for software engineering problems, software design, software project management, and social aspects of software development. She has published nearly 30 peer-reviewed papers in software engineering. She is member of the board at Finnish Society for Computer Science since 2018, has attended program committees for many conferences, including the International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training track (2019), and co-chaired the Symposium for Programming Languages and Tools (2015). Prof Ita Richardson is a Co-Principal Investigator in Lero and an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems at the University of Limerick. She leads the Process Quality Research Group, supervising projects on Global Software Engineering and Connected Health. She has over 200 publications, has supervised 16 PhD students to completion and is currently supervising 7 PhD students. Prof Richardson was an SFI Industry Research Fellow (2015–2017). She has received funding for her research from a variety of agencies including Science Foundation Ireland, Irish Research Council, European Union and Enterprise Ireland. Prof Richardson is Special Advisor to the UL President on Equality and Diversity, and works nationally to promote gender equality in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. She collaborates with a number of industries including IBM and Ocuco, and public bodies such as the Health Service Executive. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, and serves on many conference programme committees including the International Conference on Software Engineering 2018 and 2020 and the International Conference on Global Software Engineering over many years. Prof Richardson is guest editor of Journal of Software: Evolution and Process on Connected Health (2017), Journal of Software: Evolution and Process on Software Processes (2015), Expert Systems Journal on Knowledge Engineering in Global Software Development (2014), Journal of Software: Evolution and Process on Global Software Engineering (2012) and IEEE Software on Software Process for Small Enterprises (2007). Dr Sarah Beecham is a Senior Research Fellow in Lero ( https://www.lero.ie ) the Irish Software Research Centre at the University of Limerick. Sarah joined Lero in 2009, to conduct research into software quality and process improvement. Her wider interests are in socio-technical aspects of software engineering to include Software Engineer motivation, agile methods, distributed software development, and how technology influences the lives of the older adult. She works closely with industry, where her research is problem driven. She is also interested in the education of the next generation of software engineers. She has published over 60 peer reviewed papers in software engineering. In her empirical research, Sarah employs both qualitative and quantitative methods. She has supervised and examined several national and international PhD students and has three students currently in the pipeline. Sarah sits on many Program Committees, has been General Chair for the Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE) conference, and was Co-chair at ICSE 2019 Software Engineering Education and Training (SEET) track and is an associate editor for the Journal of Systems and Software.

Julkaisufoorumi-taso

Jufo-taso 3

!!ASJC Scopus subject areas

Software
Information Systems
Hardware and Architecture

Pääsy asiakirjaan

10.1016/j.jss.2019.110400

Software_Architecture_Design_in_Global_Software_Development_EmpiricalAccepted author manuscript, 563 KBLisenssi: CC BY-NC-ND

http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202001151274Lisenssi: CC BY-NC-ND

Software architecture design in global software development: An empirical study
Sievi-Korte, O. (Speaker)
27 marrask. 2020
Aktiviteetti: Konferenssiesitelmä

Siteeraa tätä

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title = "Software architecture design in global software development: An empirical study",

abstract = "In Global Software Development (GSD), the additional complexity caused by global distance requires processes to ease collaboration difficulties, reduce communication overhead, and improve control. How development tasks are broken down, shared and prioritized is key to project success. While the related literature provides some support for architects involved in GSD, guidelines are far from complete. This paper presents a GSD Architectural Practice Framework reflecting the views of software architects, all of whom are working in a distributed setting. In-depth interviews with architects from seven different GSD organizations revealed a complex set of challenges and practices. We found that designing software for distributed teams requires careful selection of practices that support understanding and adherence to defined architectural plans across sites. Teams used Scrum which aided communication, and Continuous Integration which helped solve synchronization issues. However, teams deviated from the design, causing conflicts. Furthermore, there needs to be a balance between the self-organizing Scrum team methodology and the need to impose architectural design decisions across distributed sites. The research presented provides an enhanced understanding of architectural practices in GSD companies. Our GSD Architectural Practice Framework gives practitioners a cohesive set of warnings, which for the most part, are matched by recommendations.",

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AU - Richardson, Ita

AU - Beecham, Sarah

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N2 - In Global Software Development (GSD), the additional complexity caused by global distance requires processes to ease collaboration difficulties, reduce communication overhead, and improve control. How development tasks are broken down, shared and prioritized is key to project success. While the related literature provides some support for architects involved in GSD, guidelines are far from complete. This paper presents a GSD Architectural Practice Framework reflecting the views of software architects, all of whom are working in a distributed setting. In-depth interviews with architects from seven different GSD organizations revealed a complex set of challenges and practices. We found that designing software for distributed teams requires careful selection of practices that support understanding and adherence to defined architectural plans across sites. Teams used Scrum which aided communication, and Continuous Integration which helped solve synchronization issues. However, teams deviated from the design, causing conflicts. Furthermore, there needs to be a balance between the self-organizing Scrum team methodology and the need to impose architectural design decisions across distributed sites. The research presented provides an enhanced understanding of architectural practices in GSD companies. Our GSD Architectural Practice Framework gives practitioners a cohesive set of warnings, which for the most part, are matched by recommendations.

AB - In Global Software Development (GSD), the additional complexity caused by global distance requires processes to ease collaboration difficulties, reduce communication overhead, and improve control. How development tasks are broken down, shared and prioritized is key to project success. While the related literature provides some support for architects involved in GSD, guidelines are far from complete. This paper presents a GSD Architectural Practice Framework reflecting the views of software architects, all of whom are working in a distributed setting. In-depth interviews with architects from seven different GSD organizations revealed a complex set of challenges and practices. We found that designing software for distributed teams requires careful selection of practices that support understanding and adherence to defined architectural plans across sites. Teams used Scrum which aided communication, and Continuous Integration which helped solve synchronization issues. However, teams deviated from the design, causing conflicts. Furthermore, there needs to be a balance between the self-organizing Scrum team methodology and the need to impose architectural design decisions across distributed sites. The research presented provides an enhanced understanding of architectural practices in GSD companies. Our GSD Architectural Practice Framework gives practitioners a cohesive set of warnings, which for the most part, are matched by recommendations.

KW - Empirical study

KW - Global software development

KW - GSD

KW - GSE

KW - Scrum

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DO - 10.1016/j.jss.2019.110400

M3 - Article

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JO - Journal of Systems and Software

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Software architecture design in global software development: An empirical study

Abstrakti

Rahoitus

Julkaisufoorumi-taso

!!ASJC Scopus subject areas

Pääsy asiakirjaan

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Aktiviteetit

Software architecture design in global software development: An empirical study

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