Review of global software development (GSD) trends in Malaysia and future directions

In IT industry, global software development (GSD) is becoming popular since the past few decades. GSD is the process whereby companies are doing development of software at different locations. GSD is adopted by the IT companies to get the advantages of multi-site development, reduce development cost and access large group of skilled labor. Despite the leverage benefits of GSD, several challenges are also associated with it. A number studies have addressed disciplined processes and standards to cope with these challenges. These studies are conducted in different parts of the world but not particularly in Malaysia. The literature on the use of software practices due to GSD in Malaysia is still limited. Therefore, the present study reviews the existing work on GSD and suggests further research in this area in Malaysian context. We present our future research plan for Malaysian software companies that are involved in GSD and project outsourcing. The findings of future researches will help to know the trends of software processes in Malaysia as well as the GSD factors that affect the selection of a process. Moreover, present study also presents a preliminary framework for process selection.