From VSC attributes and characteristics to SCM challenges

The organisational performance of software companies has become critically important. While customer requirements are changing and varying ever more frequently, and an effective management of the software process is becoming essential, the suitability of current software-related business models has became questionable (M.L. Van De Vanter and T. Murer, 1999; N. Venkatraman and J.C. Henderson, 1998). One of the current global trends is transorganisational collaborative work in distributed, dynamic teamwork environments, called Virtual Software Corporations (VSC). The virtual organisational structure presents particular challenges to software configuration management (SCM), while the rate of change in size, complexity and duration of software projects has shown an increasing acceleration. The paper describes a SCM process analysis conducted in three virtual software production organisations. One of the main results that is presented is a framework for practical SCM process improvement, consisting of SCM challenges defined on the basis of key VSC characteristics and attributes.