Global Software Development for Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises
Project Summary
The project Global Software Development for Small to Medium Sized enterprises (GSD for SMEs), led by Dr. Ita Richardson, is a project funded under the Science Foundation Ireland Cluster grant, Foundations, Technologies and Context for Global Software Development (Principal Investigator Prof. Kevin Ryan). Dr. Rory O'Connor, Dublin City University and Mr. Gerry Coleman, Dundalk Institute for Technology will be the main academic collaborators on this project, and Prof. Anthony Finkelstein, University College London, the main international collaborator. This project will run for 4 years.
The project has funding for post-doctoral researchers and full-time PhD students. There is also funding available to pay fees for part-time students. It is anticipated that we will work with a number of small companies while undertaking this project, some of whom are already committed to and are involved in the research. We will also be carrying out fieldwork with at least one multi-national company. Start date of the project was 1st April, 2004.
This project will investigate the role of the software SME with relation to where it sits in the global software development environment. In many cases, companies are outsourcing sections of their software development to small companies. In many, but not all cases, the outsourcing company is a large multinational organisation. The SME to whom the work is outsourced is expected to fulfil the role of a project team within the outsourcing company. This raises issues for the software SME such as:
 | What processes should be used? |
| How does the SME demonstrate their process efficient to their customer? |
| How does the SME maintain the process level required by the customer? |
| Should a company use different processes depending on the type of project being worked on? |
| How does the SME cope with different process models required by different customers? |
| What risk management (relating to software process) should be considered when taking outsourcing contracts from another company? |
| Are there other software quality issues that the SME should be aware of? |
| What are the cost/benefits of implementing efficient software process in this context? |
On the other side of the coin, the company doing the outsourcing needs to take issues into account such as:
| How does the outsourcer know what processes are being used? |
| How can they ensure conformity to these processes? |
| What risk management (with relation to process) should be considered when outsourcing to small companies? |
These questions then start to raise further issues about the usefulness of off/near/onshore outsourcing and also about the cultural issues that need to be considered when outsourcing development.
The research in this project will attempt to look at these issues with an emphasis on the software SME. To do this, the research must be carried out in two directions - working with the software SME to whom the work is being outsourced and working with the company who is outsourcing software development. The expected outcome is a framework within which SMEs who are develop software within this context can work. In fact, aspects of this framework are expected to be useful to all software SMEs, regardless of whether they do / do not outsource development.
Recruitment Process
We are currently recruiting for the positions mentioned above. The positions may be located in any of the participating institutions, with at least one post-doctoral researcher and one full-time PhD student located in the University of Limerick. PhD students will be required to fulfil the academic requirements of the institution to which they are applying.
When submitting your C.V. please summarise your research interests and experience along with any industrial experience which you may have.
For further information please contact me roconnor AT computing.dcu.ie