Coordination Implications of Software Architecture in a Global Software Development Project

In this paper, we report on our experience assessing the relationship between the dependency structure of a software architecture and the coordination needs among distributed development teams. We use as a case study for global software development the Global Studio Project Version 3.0, where matrix models were used to represent both architectural dependencies and the coordination structure among the team members. Analysis of data gathered during the Global Studio Project Version 3.0 revealed that design structure matrix (DSM) models representing the modular structure of the software architecture are highly consistent with the social network matrix models that represent the actual coordination structure. We conclude that DSM modeling can help guide the task assignments in global software development projects.