MAPPING THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH ON GLOBAL
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
A Systematic Literature Review
Josiane Kroll, Jorge Luis Nicolas Audy and Rafael Prikladnicki
Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, Brazil
Keywords: Distributed Software Development, Software Engineering, Global Software Engineering, Systematic
Literature Review.
Abstract: Studies on Global Software Engineering (GSE) have increase in recent years. However, it is not clear how
research on this area has evolved in terms of topics being investigated. For this reason, the purpose of this
paper is to identify areas within Software Engineering (SE) about which studies related to GSE have been
published and to indicate possible gaps in this recent research area. We report from a Systematic Literature
Review (SLR) conducted from September to November of 2010. The main result is mapping the evolution
of this research field including what has been investigated.
1 INTRODUCTION
Global Software Engineering (GSE) is a recent
research field. The concept of GSE started in the 90s
in consequence of the PC revolution. With the
increase of the studies in GSE over the years, is it
not clear how the research in this area has evolved in
terms of topics being investigated.
Some studies using the Systematic Literature
Review (SLR) method were conducted to
contextualize the GSE research field (Smite et al.
2009; Jiménez, Piattini, and Vizcaíno 2009; Ebling,
Audy, and Prickladnicki, 2009). Other studies using
SLR method explored aspects of the GSE, but did
not discuss the evolution of research in GSE.
For this reason, this paper reports from a SLR in
order to identify software engineering (SE) areas
that have studies in GSE and the most discussed
topics in each area. Consequently, it will allow the
analysis of the evolution of the GSE research field,
SE areas that have been investigated, and the topics
that have to be dealt with.
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2,
describes the research method that was used in this
study. Section 3, presents results obtained from the
SLR. Section 4, presents a critical analysis of the
obtained data, highlighting issues and the evolution
of GSE research field. Finally, Section 5 provides
some concluding remarks.
2 SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE
REVIEW PROCESS
We conducted this SLR from September to
November 2010 following the procedures
recommended by Kitchenham (2004). All identified
studies were mapped into Knowledge Areas (KAs)
from SWEBOK (Software Engineering Body of
Knowledge) (Abran et al., 2004), PMBOK (Project
Management Body of Knowledge) (PMBOK, 2004)
or into three new KAs defined in this study. The
research questions that guided this SLR were:
RQ.1: Which KAs of SE have studies in GSE?
RQ.2: What are the discussed topics in each
identified KA?
The keywords that guided the search to answers
to the research questions were: global software
development, global software engineering,
distributed software development, and distributed
software engineering.
We searched digital libraries such as IEEE
Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Wiley Inter Science,
and Elsevier Science Direct. We choose the period
from 1990 to 2010, because studies in GSE began to
be published in the early 1990’s (Prikladnick, Audy,
and Shull, 2010; Smite et al., 2010). The duplicated
studies were excluded from the research. In total we
found 981 studies, out of which 602 were selected
for analysis.
260
Kroll J., Luis Nicolas Audy J. and Prikladnicki R..
MAPPING THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH ON GLOBAL SOFTWARE ENGINEERING - A Systematic Literature Review.
DOI: 10.5220/0003500702600265
In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS-2011), pages 260-265
ISBN: 978-989-8425-55-3
Copyright
c
 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

3 FINDINGS
3.1 Software Engineering Areas with
Studies in GSE (RQ.1)
To answer RQ.1, the KAs defined on SWEBOK and
PMBOK were used to classify the studies. However,
during classification process, we observed that both
SWEBOK and PMBOK did not have KAs that could
be used to classify some of the studies. This way, we
defined three additional KAs:
 General Area: holds studies that report results
from research in GSE that are not in KAs from
the SWEBOK nor the PMBOK.
 Position Paper: studies that report an author’s
point of view on a given issue in GSE.
 Systematic Review: studies of the literature
using the systematic review method. Studies
in this area can also be classified in KAs from
the SWEBOK or PMBOK.
In Table 1 we present the number of studies
found for each KAs of the SWEBOK.
Table 1: Number of Studies in the SWEBOK KAs.
SWEBOK KAs
Number of
Studies
Software Engineering Processes 87
Methods and Tools of SE 69
Software Project 51
Software Engineering Management 46
Software Requirements 33
Software Construction 32
Software Quality 15
Software Maintenance 13
Software Testing 11
Software Configuration Management 4
As for the PMBOK, the studies are distributed in
seven KAs, as presented in Table 2.
Table 2: Number of Studies in the PMBOK KAs.
PMBOK KAs
Number
of Studies
Project Communications Management 51
Project Human Resource Management 40
Project Quality Management 11
Project Risk Management 11
Project Integration Management 9
Project Scope Management 4
Project Cost Management 3
Project Time Management 0
Project Procurement Management 0
Some studies could not be classified in any
SWEBOK or PMBOK KAs. However, these studies
were mapped into the new KAs defined in this
research (Table 3).
Table 3: Number of Studies in the New KAs.
New KAs Total
General Area 99
Systematic Review 8
Position Paper 5
3.2 Research Topics Identified (RQ.2)
It is important to observe that each study could
address more than on topic. Details of the identified
topics are described in following subsections.
3.2.1 Research Topics in SWEBOK KAs
In Table 4 we present the main topics found for the
Software Requirements KA.
Table 4: Topics of the Software Requirements KA.
Topics Area% Total%
Approaches to elicitation and trading
requirements; Use of social networks,
semantics data and wiki;
18.2 1.0
Tools for systems requirements
management;
12.1 0.7
Simulators for training and learning
requirements elicitation;
9.1 0.5
Process support system; Aspects of
culture and distance; Challenges in the
negotiation of requirements;
Requirements extraction techniques;
6.1 0.3
Notations for requirements modeling;
Validation of requirements; Aspects of
communication in process of
requirements extracting; Text-based
communication for elicitation of
requirements; UML models of
requirements; Frameworks; Models;
Volatile Requirements.
3.0 0.2
The Software Project KA had 51 studies and is
the third KA with the largest percentage of studies
found (8.5%). The most discussed topics in this KA
are presented in Table 5. The Software Construction
KA represents 5.3% of the studies found (Table 6).
The Software Testing KA is the second least
explored area by studies in GSE. It concentrates
1.8% of the total of studies (Table 7). The Software
Maintenance KA is also little explored in GSE
research, with only 1.7% of the studies (Table 8).
MAPPING THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH ON GLOBAL SOFTWARE ENGINEERING - A Systematic Literature
Review
261

Table 5: Topics of the Software Project KA.
Topics Are% Total%
Software architecture and structure
33.3 2.8
Development tools
19.6 1.7
Development methodologies
9.8 0.8
Construction of models, UML models
and prototypes; Environment
management processes; Design patterns;
Characteristics of the structure of GSE;
Frameworks;
5.9 0.5
Inner source software development;
Taxonomies for identification of the GSE
dimensions; Wiki; Development via
mobile.
2.0 0.2
Table 6: Topics of the Software Construction KA.
Topics Areas% Total%
Project theories and models;
28.1 1.5
Open source development;
Implementation tools for virtual
environments; Development
Approaches;
12.5 0.7
Languages;
9.4 0.5
Methodologies; Managing artifacts;
Tools; Using components; Patterns;
Business models;
6.3 0.3
Tasks allocation; Agile methodologies;
Platforms for object oriented
languages; CORBA based distributed
components; Development testing;
Social networks.
3.1 0.2
Table 7: Topics of the Software Testing KA.
Topics Area% Total%
Processes for defect detection and
simulation;
27.3 0,5
Experiences across teams; Effectiveness
test models;
18.2 0.3
Performance assessment methodologies
of applications; Allocation of
developers and testers to perform tests;
Training tutorials; Internet-based
approaches to testing; Verification and
validation; Tools.
9.1 0.2
Table 8: Topics of the Software Maintenance KA.
Topics Area% Total%
Sources of error in products and
processes; Management mechanisms;
30.8 0.7
Cost estimation; 23.1 0.5
Collaborative work; Models.
7.7 0.2
In the Software Configuration Management KA,
4 studies and 3 topics were found. This area
corresponds to 0.6% of the studies found. This KA
has the least number of studies in GSE. Table 9
presents this data.
Table 9: Topics of the Software Configuration
Management KA.
Topics Area% Total%
Managing documentation versions;
Tools coordination;
50.0 0.3
Security.
25.0 0.2
In the Software Engineering Management KA,
46 studies and 19 research topics were found. This
KA has 7.6% of the studies found in the SLR. In
Table 10, an interesting observation is that the
Software Engineering Management KA is covered
mainly in the Models and Processes improvement
topics.
Table 10: Topics of the Software Engineering
Management KA.
Topics Area% Total%
Models; Process improvement; 13.0 1.0
Teams and organizations management;
Challenges;
10.9 0.8
Tools and techniques; Development
strategies;
8.7 0.7
Management and risk reduction;
Approaches to projects with similar
environments;
6.5 0.5
Business models;
4.3 0.3
Project Scope Management; Agile
methodologies; Estimation of effort;
Metrics; Ontologies; Middlewares;
Support agents; Frameworks; Valuation
in virtual environments; Security.
2.2 0.2
The Software Engineering Processes KA had the
largest percentage of studies found in SLR, among
SWEBOK KAs. This KA has 14.4% of the found
studies (Table 11). In the Methods and Tools of
Table 11: Topics of the Software Engineering Processes
KA.
Topics Areas% Total%
Management and improvement of
processes;
26.4 3.8
Process and capacity models; 18.4 2.7
Teams and organizations management; 13.8 2.0
Tools; 5.7 0.8
Software development environments;
Concepts of the GSE;
4.6 0.7
Methods; Agile methodologies;
Process support systems; Knowledge
management;
3.4 0.5
Collaborative Development; Metrics;
Emerging topics and challenges;
2.3 0.3
Patterns; Frameworks; Software
Quality; Components; UML diagrams;
Software life cycles; Risks; User
profiles; Performance analysis;
Applications; Allocation of tasks.
1.1 0.2
ICEIS 2011 - 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems
262

Software Engineering KA, 69 studies were
found, mapped into 24 topics. This KA has 11.4% of
the studies found in the SLR (Table 12).
In the Software Quality KA 15 studies and 10
research topics were found. This KA has 2.4% of
studies found in the SLR. The topics are divided in 3
groups, as presented in Table 13.
Table 12: Topics of the Methods and Tools of Software
Engineering KA.
Topics Areas% Total%
Process support tools; 18.8 2.2
Communication tools; 11.6 1.3
Research on existing GSE tools; 10.1 1.2
Modeling of processes;
Personnel management tools;
7.2 0.8
Project management tools; 5.8 0.7
Tools for requirements; Tools
for real-time simulation;
4.3 0.5
Methods and tools for the Web;
Tools for simulating projects;
Time optimization tools; Tools
for Assessment of case tools
documentation; Tools for
replacement and acquisition of
the code;
2.9 0.3
Artificial intelligence; Tools for
the development of teams skills;
Construction of middleware;
Quality tools; New methods
unifying methodologies; Wiki;
Route calculation tools; Testing
tools; Offshore development
tools.
1.4 0.2
Table 13: Topics of the Software Quality KA.
Topics Area% Total%
Projects quality management; 73.0 1.8
Quality assessments;
Management and quality process;
Influence of distance and
geographical dispersion in
software quality; Analysis of
validation experiences;
13.3 0.3
Open source Software Quality;
Frameworks; New approaches to
Software Quality; Models;
Performance indicators.
6.7 0.2
3.2.2 Research Topics of the PMBOK KAs
In Table 14, we present the main topics discussed in
the Project Integration Management KA.
Table 14: Topics of the Project Integration Management
KA.
Topics Area% Total%
Coordination models;
Approaches;
22.2 0.3
Coordination processes; Life
cycles; Knowledge management;
Project phases; Offshore
development tools.
11.1 0.2
In the Project Scope Management KA, 4 studies
were identified, and each one has 1 topic associated.
In Table 15, the topics are presented.
Table 15: Topics of the Project Scope Management KA.
Topics Area% Total%
Development routes studies;
Group projects management;
Models; Collaborative software.
25.0 0.2
In the Project Cost Management KA, 3 studies
and only 1 topic were found, as can be seen in the
Table 16.
Table 16: Topics of the Project Cost Management KA.
Topics Areas% Total%
Cost Analysis of collaboration
models.
100.0 0.4
In the Project Quality Management KA, 11
studies were found, mapped into 7 research topics.
This KA had 1.4% of the studies found in this SLR,
and most studies discuss defect detection and quality
evaluation (Table 17).
Table 17: Topics of the Project Quality Management KA.
Topics Area% Total%
Defect detection and quality
evaluation;
27.3 0.5
Quality frameworks; Quality
approaches;
18.2 0.3
Quality in offshore projects;
Distance and software quality;
Analysis of validation
experiences; Quality and
geographic dispersion.
9.1 0.2
In the Project Human Resource Management
KA, 40 studies were mapped into 10 topics. This KA
had 6.6% of the studies. In Table 18, the identified
topics are presented.
MAPPING THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH ON GLOBAL SOFTWARE ENGINEERING - A Systematic Literature
Review
263

Table 18: Topics of the Project Human Resource
Management KA.
Topics Area% Total%
Teams management and
development organizations;
37.5 2.5
Virtual teams;
20.0 1.3
Tools; Ability of teams and
individuals;
12.5 0.8
Impact of the culture on the
design team;
10.0 0.7
Models; 7.5 0.5
Adaptations of roles;
5.0 0.3
Allocation of tasks and teams;
Simulation approaches;
Communication practices.
2.5 0.2
In the Project Communications Management
KA, 51 studies were found, corresponding to 8.4%
of the studies. In this KA, 17 topics were identified,
which are presented in Table 19.
Table 19: Topics of the Project Communications
Management KA.
Topics Area% Total%
Communication support tools; 17.6 1.5
Communication flaws, barriers,
case studies and experiments;
15.7 1.3
Communication management and
coordination of knowledge;
Communication patterns between
project groups;
7.8 0.7
Communications requirements;
Communication models; Agile
methodologies;
5.9 0.5
Coordination mechanisms of
communication; Structures of
delay; Effects of distance in
communication; Social networks
and wiki;
3.9 0.3
Studies of communication
language and linguistic
differences; Use of instant
messages in GSE; Predictive
modeling processes using
notations to improve
communication among teams;
Transcripts of communication
among teams; Ontology for
communication.
2.0 0.2
In the Project Risk Management KA, 11 studies
were found and mapped into 10 topics. This KA had
1.8% of the studies found in this SLR. The identified
topics in this KA are presented in Table 20.
Table 20: Topics of the Project Risk Management KA.
Topics Area% Total%
Analysis and coordination
methods;
45.5 0.8
Frameworks; 36.4 0.7
Risk reduction; Risk assessment
types; Identification of problems
related to the emergence of risks;
Risk management models; Agile
methodologies; Risk Factors in
outsourced offshoring;
18.2 0.3
Web Risks; Tools. 9.1 0.2
3.2.3 Research Topics in New KAs
In Table 21, we present the topics classified in the
General Area:
Table 21: Topics of the General Area.
Topics Area% Total%
Education; 31.3 5.1
Revisions of workshops;
18.2 3.0
Challenges related to spatial and
temporal aspects, cultural
partners;
17.2 2.8
Lessons learned and practices;
12.1 2.0
New research areas; 9.1 1,5
Evolution of GSE;
4.0 0.7
Agile methodologies; Strategies
for GSE;
3.0 0.5
Analysis of the technical and non-
technical challenges for GSE;
Difficulties for the research in the
area;
2.0 0.3
Presentation of the research
groups; Concepts; Benefits of
using GSE.
1.0 0.2
In the Position Paper KA, 5 studies and 2 topics
were identified (Table 22).
Table 22: Topics of the Position Paper KA.
Topics Area% Total%
Study prospects in GSE; 60.0 0.5
Considerations about culture,
location, coordination in GSE.
40.0 0.3
In Table 23, the topics of the Systematic Review
KA are presented. In this area, we found 8 studies
mapped into 8 topics.
ICEIS 2011 - 13th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems
264

Table 23: Topics of the Systematic Review KA.
Topics Area% Total%
Challenges and solutions in GSE;
Critical barriers in GSE;
25.0 0.3
Process models; Tools;
Development patterns and
practices; Aspects of
communication; Success factors;
Agile methodologies.
12.5 0.2
4 DISCUSSION
The studies that discuss GSE are focused mainly on
the following KAs: Software Engineering Processes
(14%), Methods and Tools of SE (11%), Project
Communications Management (8%) and Project
Human Resource Management (6%). The high
percentage of studies in these KAs was not a
surprise, because GSE to be successful is very
dependent on these KAs.
The Project Procurement Management and
Project Cost Management KAs, both from PMBOK,
did not have identified studies. Other KAs, such as
Time Management had less than 10 studies each.
The Software Engineering Processes, Methods
and Tools of Software Engineering and Design
software KAs from SWEBOK correspond together
to 27.1% of studies in GSE. These areas obtained a
higher percentage of studies, in comparison to KAs
of the PMBOK. This result indicates that most
challenges of GSE might be concentrated in these
KAs.
Based on this SLR we found studies for most
Software Engineering KAs, but still there are topics
not explored, and this might be an opportunity. We
also identified new topics, classified in the General
Area KA. These new topics indicate that there are
several research opportunities in the GSE field, with
several interesting topics to be explored, as the area
evolve.
5 CONCLUSIONS
GSE is increasing and it is essential for
organizations that wish to be in the software
development market. Several organizations are
doing GSE, and research in this field is essential to
the growth of GSE as an area of research.
The existing studies are distributed over almost
all SE KAs. Most of the studies found are
concentrated in KAs that are the basis of GSE, such
as Software Engineering Processes, Methods and
Tools, Project Communications Management and
Project Human Resource Management.
The analysis of KAs’ study topics reveals that
the GSE is an immature research field and that there
are still many research opportunities. This way, we
believe that the development of this work
contributed to the identification of emerging
research areas and topics, along with research
opportunities. In order to continue this work, this
SLR may be expanded to reach other digital
libraries. New studies can help identifying new
research topics and additional study areas.
REFERENCES
Abran A., Moore J. W. et al., 2004. Guide to the Software
Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK®), IEEE
Computer Society 2004 Guide.
Ebling T., Audy, J. L. N., Prikladnicki, R., 2009. A
Systematic Literature Review of Requirements
Engineering in Distributed Software Development
Environments. ICEIS (3) 2009, 363-366.
Jiménez, M., Piattini, M., Vizcaíno, A., 2009. Challenges
and improvements in distributed software
development: A systematic review. Advances in
Software Engineering.
Kitchenham, B., 2004. Procedures for Performing
Systematic Reviews. Joint Technical Report SE0401
and NICTA Technical Report 0400011T.1, Software
Engineering Group, Department of Computer Science,
Keele University.
PMBOK, A Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), Third Edition, 2004,
Project Management Institute Publications, U.S.A.
Prikladnicki, R., Audy, J. L. N., Shull, F., 2010. Patterns
in Effective Distributed Software Development. IEEE
Software, v. 27, 12-15.
Smite, D., Wohlin, C., Gorschek, T., Feldt R., 2009.
Empirical evidence in global software engineering: a
systematic review. Empirical Softw. Eng., 91-118.
Smite, D., Wohlin, C., Gorschek, T., Feldt, R., 2010.
Empirical evidence in global software engineering: a
systematic review. Empirical Softw. Eng. 2010,
91-118.
MAPPING THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH ON GLOBAL SOFTWARE ENGINEERING - A Systematic Literature
Review
265