Original scientific paper

CROSS-CULTURAL SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Hannu Jaakkola ; Tampere University of Technology, Pori, Finland; University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Anneli Heimburger ; Tampere University of Technology, Pori, Finland; University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Abstract

One of the leading trends in software development is globalization. This trend can be seen from two different viewpoints: the software development in distributed cross-cultural organizations and the products distributed in the global market. The latter aspect means that developers must recognize the cultural differences of the users and produce adaptable, culturally sensitive products. This aspect will be left outside the scope of this paper. Instead, we will concentrate on analyzing the complexity caused by the globalization of software engineering work. Globalization is mostly motivated by economic reasons – a cheaper workforce is expected to reduce the costs of the work. However, in practice, it is not only a question of economics. Globalization has consequences in management culture, in distribution of the work, in ways of communication, and in many other aspects. In our paper we will open the discussion on the problems of the globalization of software development work. In spite of the importance of the topic only a few public studies on it are available. The paper analyzes the different organizational aspects of globalization and reviews experiences based on practical studies of the topic. The goal is to recognize the right kind of globalization path and also to point out the key issues worth recognizing when making the decision whether to globalize.

Keywords

Globalization; Software Engineering (SE); Cross-Cultural Communication

Hrčak ID:

42346

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/42346

Publication date:

23.12.2009.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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