Challenges of project management in Global Software Development: Initial results

Over the last decade, many firms in the world have started adopting Global Software Development (GSD) in order to reduce software development cost. GSD helps companies to leverage the benefits of multi-site development with respect to time, cost and access to skillful resource. Recent research suggests that half of the companies that have tried global software development have failed to realize the anticipated outcomes. One of the major issues is that many clients endorse global contracts with their vendors prior to testing their project management readiness for the global activity. The objective of this research is to identify challenges associated with project management in GSD. We have performed a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) by applying customized search strings derived from our research question. We have identified challenges such as lack of cultural understanding in teams, lack of communication, time zone problem, lack of co-ordination and lack of knowledge management and transfer among teams as key project management challenges in GSD. Our ultimate aim is to develop a model in order to measure organizations' project management readiness for GSD activities.