Global Software Development and the Early Stages of Offshoring

Abstract

Global Software Engineering (GSD) is becoming a more common practice as increasingly more companies seek to establish offshore offices. Previous studies have identified several effects that are attributed to GSD, including suggestions on how to attain the positive effects and mitigate the negative. This study aims to uncover which effects and management strategies are evident during the early stages of offshoring by conducting a case study at a software company that is still in the first two years of establishing offshore offices. The results identified GSD effects in four primary categories; social, organisational, cultural and temporal. The company had implemented strategies for most of these effects, including organising face-to-face meetings for distributed team members to support better relationships between co-workers, and encouraging the growth of company culture to address cultural gaps. Effects that took longer to emerge were also identified, such as lacking standardisation. Although attitudes towards GSD were positive, people’s experiences were often negative.