Global software development (GSD), where software teams are located in different parts of the world, has become increasingly popular. However, GSD involves issues such as geographical distance, cultural diversities, differences in time zones, and language barriers amongst stakeholders, making it different from collocated software development, and requirements engineering (RE) is very much affected by these issues. To examine what stakeholders think about the impact of these factors on the different activities of RE in a GSD environment, we have conducted a survey among organizations located in different parts of the world which were involved in GSD. In this paper, we present the findings of the survey. The survey pointed to the facts that stakeholders are not very aware of the risks and challenges associated with GSD, that stakeholders are not clear about how the geographical dispersion of development teams could affect the RE process, and that the lack of RE methods for GSD makes stakeholders use the conventional techniques and approaches of RE that do not consider the factors involved in GSD. The findings of our study will enable readers to gain a better understanding of what different groups of stakeholders think about RE in GSD.
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