Challenges of Agile–Crowd Software Development: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Crowdsourcing is an emerging approach in software development, where software is developed by unknown, heterogeneous people around the globe, via an open call by the employer. Crowdsourcing, when used with agile, faces challenges because of the different development methodologies. Agile development methodology has practices that involve face-to-face frequent interaction, whereas crowdsourcing is a distributed development with no or limited face-to-face interaction. Both concepts are actively being used in the software development industry due to their benefits. However, there is a need to explore the integration of both methodologies for an effective and efficient software development. In this regard, the first step is to identify the challenges of integrating crowdsourcing and agile. In this paper, we intend to identify the possible challenges that may be faced while executing agile along with crowdsourcing. For this, we have conducted a Systematic Literature Review. Five main categories of challenges are presented which are: team issues, coordination and communication issues, organizational issues, project-related issues and task-related issues. A list of possible challenges of Agile–Crowd Software Development (ACSD) is presented in this study.