With an increasing shortage of highly-skilled software engineers in Europe and the United States, the need for software companies to expand globally is becoming more and more relevant. Globally Distributed Software Engineering (GDSE) is the discipline of design, implementation, and validation of software products and/or components on at least two geographic locations and at least two continents1. In this blog post, we will give an overview of some important topics within GDSE.
Differences and distances
GDSE focuses on teams. Teams that are working together in a distributed setting all over the world. The general thought is that the team needs to share their goals and have a feeling of one-ness to perform well. Differences and distances between the team members prevent the team from reaching this feeling of one-ness, so GDSE studies these.
Cultural differences
As the team is distributed globally, it is very likely that the team members come from different cultures. Geert Hofstede has proposed a model to discern several dimension in which cultures can differ, the Hofstede Dimensions2. An overview has been provided below:
- Power Distance Index (PDI): egalitarian vs. hierarchy
- Individualism (IDV): collectivist vs. individualist
- Masculinity (MAS): harmony vs. conflicts
- Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI): risk taking vs. risk averse
- Long-Term Orientation (LTO): short-term goals vs. long-term goals (generations)
- Indulgence (IND) : sober, saving money vs. it’s okay to be happy (enjoy)
Geographical distance
When working in a global setting, there is of course geographical distance. With large geographical distance, it becomes harder to work on team building as the team members are physically separated.
Temporal distance
As side effect of the geographical distance can be temporal distance: team members work in different time zones. Even if you use great technological tools, a time zone difference creates practical problems because team members are not working in the same time window.
Forces on GDSE
There several forces that make GDSE more challenging and forces that help overcome these challenges. These so-called centrifugal(negative) and centripetal(positive) forces play an important role in the GDSE process of a company or team. They are listed below:
Centrifugal forces of GDSE (forces that make GDSE more challenging):
- Geographical dispersion
- Loss of communication richness
- Coordination breakdown
- Loss of team one-ness
- Cultural differences
Centripetal forces of GDSE (forces that help overcome the challenges of GDSE):
- Product architecture
- Team building
- Development methodology
- Managerial techniques
- Collaborative technology
- Telecommunication infrastructure
Why do GDSE?
You might think now: ‘What is the use of GDSE?’, with all these challenges and caveats mentioned. Well, many companies are actually doing GDSE already3 and if implemented correctly the following benefits can be reaped:
- Access to scarce resource and expertise
- Faster and round-the-clock development
- Lower development costs due to lower wages
- Less geographical distance to customers
Another reason to do GDSE could also be historical: your company may have grown from mergers and acquisitions and therefore has different sites around the world.
Conclusion
GDSE comes with some challenges, but also has benefits. The field is improving continuously by companies and teams that practice GDSE and share there findings. The other blog posts on this website are aimed at providing you some insight in how you can manage working remotely.
-
Rini van Solingen on ‘What is GDSE?’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01AaU5i8-GA. Retrieved 10 May 2020 ↩
-
Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions and organizations across nations. Sage publications. ↩
-
Herbsleb, J. D., & Mockus, A. (2003). An empirical study of speed and communication in globally distributed software development. IEEE Transactions on software engineering, 29(6), 481-494. ↩