Uncertainty Management for Global Software Development Teams

Global Software Development (GSD) continues to grow substantially and although is fast becoming the norm is fundamentally different from local Software Engineering development. With the promised benefits of GSD, come many challenges and communication overheads. In this context, the Global Teaming Model (GTM) is a CMMI (R) style process model designed to help orientate distributed software development teams. However, although the GTM offers 64 recommendations, it lacks guidance on how to identify and reduce project uncertainty. In this paper we aim to produce a set of recommendations to address uncertainty in GSD. Our approach is to adapt the "manage uncertainties in co-located software projects" (MUSP) framework to fit a global environment. MUSP is an empirically derived framework that comprises practices and strategies that help software teams overcome obstacles relating to project uncertainty. To provide the much needed global context, we mapped 106 MUSP practices to the complete set of GTM recommendations. These "uncertainty management" practices augment GTM and equip global practitioners with strategies to guide them towards reducing and dealing with uncertainties; this in turn is likely to lead to improved project performance and success.