Planning and improving global software development process using simulation

Abstract:

      Global software development (GSD) is highly dominant in almost every growing firm over the world. It has various advantages like reduction in development cost , time , etc. . and disadvantages like distance, language, etc. . For GSD model to be successful, it should Incorporate new processes, methods, tools and software development operations. A strong project plan should be followed by proper management tracking and control. One way to ensure this by software process simulation model (SPSM). SPSM is used to improve GSD processes and support the organizational decision-making by creating a software process simulation, hence figuring out the bugs in the decision making face, thereby reducing cost of non quality. The paper propose hybrid simulation model combining system dynamics and discrete-event models is needed to effectively model GSD projects to increase the productivity.

 

Discussions:

 

      The Paper proposes three sub-models in the simulation model. The three major components were Discrete even sub-model, System dynamics sub model, Interaction effect sub-model. The discrete event sub-model addresses different process steps depending on task allocation strategy a development site may have. the System dynamics sub-model deals with the dynamic nature of global software development. The interaction effect sub-model show the interaction effect when the staff from distributed teams collaborate or communicate. Main concentration was given to the Interaction effect sub-model as communication plays a crucial role in GSD environment. The IE sub-model calculates the coordination efficiency of the distributed team (relative to single site coordination) and then applies the coordination effect to the productivity before sending it to the DES sub-model. As observed productivity is directly proportional to Coordination effect. There are two more major factors that determine the coordination efficiency: Communication frequency and Trust .

     Communication is extremely important in GSD. The IE sub-model will determine the relative frequency of communication when team members are at different sites compared to when they are at the same site. The relative communication frequency has a positive impact on productivity. Distance between the team members has negative effect on Communication frequency.

The other most important factor which was notes was trust. Trust has a positive impact on coordination, Teams with higher trust tend to coordinate better, thus achieve better performance which require cooperation and interdependence. Trust is has a Negatively impact on cultural differences, Positive on Familiarity and Positively on Meetings.

      GSD SPSM helps in project planning activities (like: Which development site should be included in the project?). It also helps in Software process improvement (i.e. The project manager can compare the current performance (as-is) versus the expected performance after the improvement (to-be) and then decide whether or not to implement the change).

      Based on a sample simulation of two real time GSD projects observation was made on efforts, quality, and duration. Efforts had inverse relation on duration and a direct effect on quality was the observation made.

      In this paper, it was shown how GSD model that features an innovative hybrid architecture which combines the system dynamics paradigm with the discrete-event paradigm. The hybrid feature allows the GSD model to better represent the GSD project. It is believed that such a model can be used as a decision support tool to help project managers plan, manage, and improve global software development process.