Evaluating Success Factors of Software Project Management in Global Software Development

At present, global software development (GSD) is gaining considerable attention in the realm of software engineering. The project management of global software projects presents substantial complexity owing to several inherent challenges of GSD. The software project management practices employed for in-house development appear inadequate to address the unique challenges posed by global software projects, making their management a formidable task. Software organizations rely on traditional software project management practices to manage global projects, often resulting in impairments or failures. This paper explores the critical success factors (CSFs) in software project management for global projects by developing a framework for effective project management within the context of GSD. The study focuses on identifying and prioritizing CSFs in software project management within a GSD setting utilizing multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) analysis methods. Therefore, the present research provides an extensive literature review of CSFs in software project management within GSD. Additionally, the research applies the combinatorial approach to assess the various dimensions and CSFs of software project management in GSD. The proposed approach aids in measuring and comparing the effects of several dimensions and CSFs of software project management in GSD. Five dimensions and twenty factors have been determined through a literature review and further evaluated for prioritization using the combinatorial approach. The identified dimensions and factors will be valuable in devising strategies to effectively manage global software projects.