Factors Influencing Software Development Competencies of GSD Teams: Extraction From SLR and Empirical Study

Global software development (GSD) involves software developers collaborating across cultures, time zones, and organizations. Despite its growing popularity, GSD faces challenges that hinder organizations from realizing its potential benefits. Software development competencies of the GSD team are crucial for successful GSD, but the focus has primarily been on organizational capabilities rather than individual ones. Transitioning from a local software development team to a GSD team brings about contextual changes and presents various challenges for team members. In this study, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted to discover the factors that may influence the software development competencies of the GSD team. The SLR was followed by an empirical study using a questionnaire survey to validate the SLR outcomes. The findings of the study are presented in the form of a list of 14 factors extracted from a sample of 57 selected research papers. Among the identified factors, seven are ranked as critical factors. These crucial factors are “Lack of knowledge sharing and mutual trust,” “Lack of domain knowledge, experience, and skill,” “Lack of informal communication and mutual understanding,” Training and certification,” “Cultural diversity,” “Multilingualism” and “Complex task division and distribution.” The outcomes of the questionnaire survey are coherent with the conclusions drawn from the SLR. The main aim of this study was to improve or maximize the competence level of a software development team in the GSD environment. The factors identified in this research study may serve as valuable guidelines for developers to enhance their competencies and improve their effectiveness when working in a GSD team.