Software Integration Challenges in Global Software Development Environment: A Systematic Literature Review Protocol

CONTEXT – Global Software Development (GSD) is an emerging trend to perform software development activities across national boundaries. Despite of the benefits gained from GSD, there are certain challenges associated with it. Amongst these challenges one of the critical challenge, which has comparatively little attention in software engineering research community, is the integration of products and components developed by different teams at different locations. OBJECTIVE – The objective of this paper is to design SLR protocol to identify the challenges associated with software/product integration based on project size and product type in GSD environment from vendor’s perspective and to identify the factors to be addressed before, during and after the integration process by the vendor organisations. METHODOLOGY – We will conduct a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) to identify the challenges and factors mentioned above. SLR is different from ordinary review because it is comparatively unbiased and is based on a predefined protocol. EXPECTED OUTCOME – The expected outcome of the review will be identification of challenges and factors for software integration in GSD. The identified factors through the review will lead us to develop a Software Integration Model (SIM) that will assist vendors to appropriately address the challenges and factors associated with software/product integration in GSD for different sized and types of projects and products.