Patternizing GSD Research: Maintainable Decision Support for Global Software Development

摘要

Context: More than a decade of empirical research into global software development has yielded a wealth of solutions to recurring problems. The Global Teaming Model is one example, organizing extensive empirical research into a cohesive process model for managing global software development projects. Problem: evidence shows that empirical research does not reach practitioners: software project managers do not read academic publications. Thus research results need to be cast in a form that is accessible to practitioners. Approach: We employ a two-pronged approach to address this problem. First, we translate research results into software process patterns, that describe a specific software development problem and an empirically derived and validated solution. Second, we enter the patterns into a knowledge based system that recommends patterns applicable to a software development project. Result: We used this approach to create a decision support system based on the Global Teaming Model. The result makes the sixty specific practices in the Global Teaming Model immediately accessible to managers and developers involved in Global Software Development. Also, the patternization of Global Teaming Model practices proved to be an efficient, low-overhead approach to translating research results into a practitioner-friendly format. Conclusion: The combination of patterns and knowledge-based decision support promises to bridge the research-practice divide by making research results more accessible to those who might benefit from them.