A Multi-Criteria Model for Planning and Fine-Tuning Global Agile Software Development Projects

Abstract

Inter-organizational Global Software Development (GSD) has become a common reality for many projects. It is well established that distance makes difficult to interact and to cooperate effectively. Scrum, a consolidated Agile methodology, emphasizes communication, reduces coordination and control overhead and has been increasingly used in a distributed fashion. Successfully planning and managing the combined use of GSD and Scrum is a complex task and requires carefully planning. Despite the importance and complexity of this type of problem, there seems to be a lack of reports, in the literature, of models that could support managers dealing with these decision contexts. This paper presents a multi-criteria decision model for planning and fine-tuning such project plans. This model was developed using cognitive mapping and MACBETH (Bana e Costa, Sanchez-Lopez, Vansnick, & De Corte, 2011). The application of the model is demonstrated, followed by conclusion and future work.