Solutions in global software engineering: A systematic literature review

Global software engineering (GSE) has received increased attention, as globalization enables and encourages increased distribution of product development. Many empirical studies and systematic literature reviews (SLRs) focus on the identification of challenges, this paper however presents the first SLR collecting and analyzing solutions associated with GSE, while also evaluating the level of empirical validation of said solutions. As a starting point the paper presents a GSE model, designed to categorize solutions into process areas, useful for the analysis of the research community's contributions to state-of-the-art and identifying fundamental gaps in research. In addition, the model categorizing the solutions is populated with references and good-examples, useful for practitioners, which can use the model to find solutions to overall challenges in various process areas. The overall results of the systematic review revealed more than 330 papers containing 127 solutions that were then identified and mapped to the model. The process areas of project management are highly populated, while other areas like product integration have received surprisingly little attention. In addition, selected process area is elaborated upon in terms of contents and deficiencies.

► We did a systematic literature review on solutions in global software engineering.
► We developed a process model focusing on solutions in global software engineering.
► We identified 127 solutions in over 330 papers and mapped them into the process model.