Abstract:
The increasing globalization of software industry demands
an investigation of Requirements Engineering (RE) in multisite
software development organizations. Requirements
engineering is a task difficult enough when done locally -- but
it is even more difficult when cross-functional stakeholder
groups specify requirements across cultural, language and time
zone boundaries.
This paper reports on a field study that investigated RE
challenges introduced by stakeholders’ geographical
distribution in a multi-site organization. The goal was to
examine RE practice in global software development, to
formulate recommendations for improvement as well as to
provide directions for future research on methods and tools.
Based on the empirical evidence, we have constructed a
model of how remote communication and knowledge
management, cultural diversity and time differences negatively
impact on requirements gathering, negotiation and
specification. Findings reveal that aspects such as a lack of a
common understanding of requirements, together with reduced
awareness of working local context, trust level and ability to
share work artifacts significantly challenge the effective
collaboration of remote stakeholders in negotiating a set of
requirements that satisfies geographically distributed
customers. The paper concludes with recommendations for
improving RE practice in this setting.
