Impact of task allocation challenges in Global Software Development

Abstract: Context and Background: Global Software Development involves teams located in different geographical locations, time zones, and cultural contexts working together to accomplish a shared goal or complete a software project. These projects, which are conducted by teams in different locations, have been found to be more risky and challenging than those with teams in the same location. Therefore, it is important to have knowledge of the potential challenges of task allocation in global software development and strategies for addressing them to manage a GSD project successfully. Objective: This thesis aims to identify and tabulate all the Task allocation challenges in Global Software Development and synthesize the mitigation strategies for the challenges identified in task allocation in GSD. To evaluate the challenges that influence the task allocation process in GSD and perform an assessment to find the mitigation strategies for these challenges. Research Method: This is a systematic literature review of studies on empirical research on GSD, covering publications from 1999 to 2022. The focus of this research is specifically on challenges associated with task allocation in GSD projects. A survey was conducted to validate the identified challenges and gather suggestive mitigation strategies. This research aimed to identify task allocation challenges in GSD and suggest mitigation strategies in GSD projects. Results: This research has identified a total of 20 challenges related to task allocation in Global software development based on a review of publications from 1999 to 2022. Additionally, the mitigation strategies for the 20 identified challenges were found in a survey conducted as part of the research. The challenges and mitigation strategies are discussed in the paper.