Global Software Teams

 Crossing Boarders  The spread of development activities to newly industrialized, emerging, and developing nations e.g. India  The transition of software development away from the traditional centralized, co-located form of development to a form in which global software terms collaborate across national boundaries, working on the same software project or product or system.  A global Software Team - is separated by a national boundary while actively collaborating on a common software/system project

Why Global Software Teams?

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Catalyst Factors

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Sustaining factors

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Size Factors

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Vision Factors

Why Global Software Teams

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Catalyst factors

 Specialized Talents  Deployment of specialized talents anywhere in the world  845,000 current vacancies Source: ITAA 2000 study      Demand for 1.6 million technology jobs in 2000 Only fill 800,000 Source: ITAA 2000 study 10% of IT jobs are currently unfilled (878 CIOs)

Source: Computer Technology Industry Association

$4.5 billion in lost employee productivity Source: Computer Technology Industry Association Entire economic output reduced by $105.5 Billion Source: Computer Technology Industry Association

Why Global Software Teams

 Catalyst factors  Acquisitions       Expanding product families through acquisitions In 1997, of the “software 500” companies 27% acquire a company, or a product line or merged with another company. A 30 % increase over the previous year.

Like in other business the road to survival is growth Global mega-mergers in (pharmaceuticals, chemicals, aerospace, telecom, and automobiles) Example Baan (US, Canada, Spain, Britain, etc) As a result of this global acquisition, software teams thousands of miles apart are suddenly forced to collaborate and coordinate, sometimes rather reluctantly.

Why Global Software Teams

 Catalyst Factors  Reduction in Development Cost  Software companies in high-wage nations are seeking low-cost programming cost  Just like many types of manufacturing shifted from high-wage countries, such as Japan and US, to low wage countries like China and Mexico.

 India, Philippines, Russia, China and the Baltic countries  Due to the hot market, software professionals in advanced industrial countries are drawn to the more interesting and glamorous jobs, while developers in emerging countries are willing to do the less exciting tasks such as maintenance, porting, testing, and Y2K re-engineering

Why Global Software Teams

 Software Developer Salaries (U.S. $ per month)  India $490  Philippines $547     China Malaysia Thailand Taiwan Singapore $746 $864 $927 $2,058 $2,792    Hong Kong Japan $3,774 $4,708  U.S. $5,250 Data from Watson Wyatt, world’s biggest pay and benefits consulting company

Why Global Software Teams

 Catalyst Factors  Global Presence  Strategically, software companies need to position their organization as “global firm” that is, to signal to the world, “we are a global player”.  Global business  Global consumers   Coca-cola and McDonald Syndrome.

This usually done via bona fide product development centers in various significant countries,  Result: software development are driven outside the national boundary or home country.

Why Global Software Teams

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Catalyst Factors

 Reduction in time-to-market  Given time zone differences the ideal dispersed project can be productive around-the-clock.

 Following the sun or Round-the-clock development has the potential to collapse time-to-market for projects completion.

 But not always a primary factor for globalization  Proximity to the customer  Staying close to the customer,very important for requirement gathering and design

Why Global Software Teams

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Catalyst Factors

 Proximity to the customer  The maxim of the best corporations, the best salesperson, and the best designers is to stay close to the customer.

   Hence software companies need to set up sites near their customers wherever they may be. Staying close to the customer,very important for requirement gathering and design where rich communication and relationships are needed between customers and developers. Also proximity to hotbeds of new high-tech activity and innovation, such as silicon Valley.

Why Global Software Teams

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Sustaining Factors

 Development Rigor  Co-located software development teams rely on informal mechanisms and less on the discipline of formalized development methodologies and quality practices.

 In contrast, distance promotes formalisms.

 One of the reasons why many India based software companies have obtained level CMM and the ISO certifications.

Why Global Software Teams

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Sustaining Factors

 Internal Freshness  Diversity brings new creativity and inspirational to software development.

 Distance from Distractions    Distance units are far from the numerous distractions of headquarters.

“Santa’s little helpers” Sometimes results in high level of loyalty

Why Global Software Teams

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Sustaining Factors

 Professional Cadre of software globalizes  The raise of global management  Experience  Experience and specialized knowledge that are built up within the distance sites   With time remote location may posses specialized skills and knowledge not available at headquarters Naturally the parent want to keep the knowledge and continue to gaining the return on their initial investments in training and developing the sites

Why Global Software Teams

 Size Factors  Scale  At some point co-located software development centers become too large and difficult to manage examples include:  SAP – US, Japan  Microsoft – Britain, India, and Israel  Evolving Synergies of Scale   Scale bring about opportunity for global collaboration that are unanticipated.

Complementary products between disperse teams, etc.

Why Global Software Teams

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Vision Factors

 The software industry is both shaping and being shaped by dominant vision of our future society.

 Technological visions  Organizational visions

Why Global Software Teams

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Visions

 Technological Vision (Location Transparency)  Location transparency is the capability to work with another colleague or group as if you were all in the same room. Either you a one floor, one building or one continent apart.

  Collaborative technologies make this possible  Internet, video- and audio conferencing, etc.

The advances in telecommunications has made this possible

Why Global Software Teams

 Vision  Virtual organization and Virtual team      Virtual organizations is a form of networked organization.

Created by distributing work and contracting out work that was once done inside the the organization to form a network of independent companies operating together as if it were a single organization.

They are geographically dispersed and more flexible in nature.

Virtual organizations are glued together by a network of computer systems They form alliance and joint ventures

Virtual Organization Structure

Why Global Software Teams

            Traditional Teams Co-located members Face-to-face interaction Members from same organization Hierarchical Mostly informal communication Position authority Information on paper Sharing completed work Knowledge hoarding Transparent process Culture learned through osmosis             Virtual Teams Distributed members Electronic communication Members from different organization Networked Continuous structured communication Process and knowledge authority Information electronic Continuous sharing of incomplete work Knowledge sharing Computer-visible process Culture learned through electronic-based communication and artifacts

Characteristic of Teams: Yesterday and Today

Global Software Teams What is the future of global software Teams?

Global Software Teams

 Future of Globally Dispersed Software Teams  Global spending on all facets of IT is estimated at several trillion dollars?

 Global package software industry generates $100 billion and grew between 250-500% in the decade of 1985-1995   In house development IT application development projects in the US was estimated at 175,000 Industrialized countries will not continue to open the door to massive immigration so the “excess” IT labor force will most likely stay where it is currently located   The labor pools will continue to seek good pay and fulfilling jobs that comes from abroad via global software teams Near-shore development sites

Global Software Teams

 Future  Attractive location  Government incentives   To reduce brain-drain thereby support the development of telecom infrastructures Tax benefits to high-technological companies  The future nature of software application  Components based  Terrorists impact