Applying verbal decision analysis in distributed software development: Rank ordering the influencing factors in task allocation

In the management of distributed software development, project managers face many challenges. Some of the most critical ones are related to the allocation of tasks between remote teams. To assign a task to a site or team, the project manager should take into account several factors such as team's technical expertise and cultural similarities. He or she usually makes this decision in a subjective way. The verbal decision analysis is an approach based on solving problems through multi-criteria qualitative analysis, which means it considers the analysis of subjective criteria. This paper describes the application of verbal decision analysis method ZAPROS III-i to rank order the factors that the project managers should take into account when allocating tasks in distributed software development projects.