Development Framework for Distributed Agile Software Development
Abdullah Saad Alqahtani, John Moore, David K. Harrison, Bruce Wood · 2014
Abstract—There is a growing interest in applying Agile development methods alongside global software development in order to reap the benefits of both approaches. With this said however, research has shown that software companies are encountering significant challenges when attempting this, due to the contradiction between Agile values and the global development environment. This paper focuses on the challenges encountered with this kind of development, and discusses several techniques via which these challenges can be addressed. It proposes a framework for distributed Agile development. Data has been collected from 85 participants from all around the world using both a self-completed questionnaire and face-to-face interviews. From this study it was found that communication barriers are the biggest development challenge. In order to ameliorate this, development teams and product owners need to work hard to improve the level of communication between them, by adopting a regimented communication schedule. The co-located development strategy “Scrum of Scrums”, where distributed isolated teams integrate together using one of the Agile methods, was found to be the most suitable strategy for distributed Agile development. Keywords—distributed Agile; development framework; Scrum; Lean and Kanban methods.