A Multicriteria Approach to Support Task Allocation in Projects of Distributed Software Development

Abstract

Organizations are increasingly investing in Distributed Software Development (DSD) over the years. A typical decision-making problem in the distributed scenario consists of deciding which team should be allocated each task. That decision takes into account a relative degree of subjectivity. That setting is suitable for applying Verbal Decision Analysis (VDA). This paper introduces an approach to support the allocation of tasks to distributed units in DSD projects, structured on the hybridisation of methods of Verbal Decision Analysis for classification and rank ordering applied to influencing factors and executing units. Firstly, a review of the literature was conducted aiming to identify the approaches to support the allocation of tasks in DSD contexts. Then, an approach was developed by applying VDA-based methods for classification and ordering. Bibliographic research and the application of surveys with professionals allowed identifying and characterising the main elements that influence task assignment in DSD projects. Afterwards, experiences were carried out in five real-world companies. In the end, the proposed approach has been submitted to the evaluation by the professionals of the participating companies and by some project management experts. The proposed approach comprises a workflow containing responsible actors and descriptions of the activities. Automated tools are also employed in automating the implementation of the approach. After applying the approach in five companies, task assignment recommendations are presented in groups for each company, according to the task type, i.e., requirements, architecture, coding, and testing, ranging from the most to the least preferable office. Results of the experiences and evaluations held during this work present evidence that the proposed approach is flexible, adaptable, and easy to understand and to use. Moreover, it helps to reduce decision subjectivity and to think of new aspects, supporting the task allocation process in DSD.