SOFTWARE TOOLS AND ONLINE SERVICES THAT ENABLE GEOGRAPHICALLY DISTRIBUTED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT OF WEB APPLICATIONS

Geographically Distributed Software Development (GDSD) has seen an increased popularity during the last years mainly because of the fast Internet adoption in the countries with emerging economies, correlated with the continuous seek for reduced development costs as well with the rise of the Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms which address planning, coordination and various development tasks. However, the implementation of an efficient model of GDSD has proven challenging due to cultural and legal differences, communication and coordination issues and software quality concerns. This study identifies the basic development operations and the interactions among team members as well as the software tools and online services that successfully cope with these. Two perspectives are reviewed: software development specific operations and interactions and the connections between the employer and the remote employees in terms of communication, billing and payments. The study focuses on the development process of web applications. In the end the author analyses the impact of using these solutions on cost, duration and quality compared to conventional in-house software development processes.