A Systematic Literature Review of Best Practices and Challenges in Follow-the-Sun Software Development
---
paper_title: Mapping Global Software Development Practices for Follow-the-Sun Process

paper_content:

Several organizations are developing software processes twenty-four hours, seven days per week, with geographically distributed teams. This environment of software development enables to implement the Follow-the-Sun (FTS) strategy. In this study, we perform a mapping of the literature based upon electronic searching in digital libraries to identify applied practices in development environments twenty-four hours in which can be apply FTS strategy. Ours results present practices and many key aspects to FTS implementation.
---
paper_title: Follow the Sun Workflow in Global Software Development

paper_content:

Follow the sun (FTS) has interesting appeal-hand off work at the end of every day from one site to the next, many time zones away, in order to speed up product development. Although the potential effect on "time to market" can be profound, at least conceptually, FTS has enjoyed few documented industry successes because it is acknowledged to be extremely difficult to implement. In order to address this "FTS challenge," we provide here a conceptual foundation and formal definition of FTS. We then analyze the conditions under which FTS can be successful in reducing duration in software development. We show that handoff efficiency is paramount to successful FTS practices and that duration can be reduced only when lower within-site coordination and improved personal productivity outweigh the corresponding increase in crosssite coordination. We also develop 12 research propositions based on fundamental issues surrounding FTS, such as calendar efficiency, development method, product architecture and handoff efficiency, within-site coordination, cross-site coordination, and personal productivity. We combine the conceptual analysis with a description of our FTS exploratory comparative field studies and draw out their key findings and learning. The main implication of this paper is that understanding calendar efficiency, handoff efficiency, within-site coordination, and cross-site coordination is necessary to evaluation-if FTS is to be successful in reducing software development duration.
---
paper_title: Patterns in Effective Distributed Software Development

paper_content:

As with many other industries today, software development must increasingly adapt to teams whose members work together but are geographically distributed. Many factors have contributed to this rise in distributed software development (DSD), including companies' desires to leverage skilled resources wherever they can be found and to reduce costs by working in different labor markets. Its increasing popularity has led to diverse industrial experience, which has in turn led to some best practices and an initial body of knowledge.
---
paper_title: Your time zone or mine?: a study of globally time zone-shifted collaboration

paper_content:

We conducted interviews with sixteen members of teams that worked across global time zone differences. Despite time zone differences of about eight hours, collaborators still found time to synchronously meet. The interviews identified the diverse strategies teams used to find time windows to interact, which often included times outside of the normal workday and connecting from home to participate. Recent trends in increased work connectivity from home and blurred boundaries between work and home enabled more scheduling flexibility. While email use was understandably prevalent, there was also general interest in video, although obstacles remain for widespread usage. We propose several design implications for supporting this growing population of workers that need to span global time zone differences.
---
paper_title: Follow the Sun Workflow in Global Software Development

paper_content:

Follow the sun (FTS) has interesting appeal-hand off work at the end of every day from one site to the next, many time zones away, in order to speed up product development. Although the potential effect on "time to market" can be profound, at least conceptually, FTS has enjoyed few documented industry successes because it is acknowledged to be extremely difficult to implement. In order to address this "FTS challenge," we provide here a conceptual foundation and formal definition of FTS. We then analyze the conditions under which FTS can be successful in reducing duration in software development. We show that handoff efficiency is paramount to successful FTS practices and that duration can be reduced only when lower within-site coordination and improved personal productivity outweigh the corresponding increase in crosssite coordination. We also develop 12 research propositions based on fundamental issues surrounding FTS, such as calendar efficiency, development method, product architecture and handoff efficiency, within-site coordination, cross-site coordination, and personal productivity. We combine the conceptual analysis with a description of our FTS exploratory comparative field studies and draw out their key findings and learning. The main implication of this paper is that understanding calendar efficiency, handoff efficiency, within-site coordination, and cross-site coordination is necessary to evaluation-if FTS is to be successful in reducing software development duration.
---
paper_title: FTSProc: A Process to Alleviate the Challenges of Projects that Use the Follow-the-Sun Strategy

paper_content:

Searching for competitive advantages as low coast and productivity gains, organizations choose to distribute their software development to other countries with more affordable production costs. Increasingly, projects are being developed in geographically distributed environments, featuring the distributed software development. However, the challenges inherent in this software development environment are significant. Among these challenges is the time zone difference, which can also be tackled as an advantage, through the use of the follow-the-sun development. However, the follow-the-sun strategy presents some challenges, mainly alongside the handoffs. Therefore, this experimental research focuses to present a development process to alleviate the challenges found in project that uses this strategy, focusing in the development phase from the SDLC. Yet, it performs an experiment to evaluate the created process' efficiency. In this experimental process it was found evidences the created process actually alleviate the challenges found in the follow-the-sun strategy.
---
paper_title: Leveraging temporal and spatial separations with the 24-hour knowledge factory paradigm

paper_content:

The 24-H Knowledge Factory facilitates collaboration between geographically and temporally distributed teams. The teams themselves form a strategic partnership whose joint efforts contribute to the completion of a project. Project-related tasks are likewise distributed, allowing tasks to be completed on a continuous basis, regardless of the constraints of any one team's working hours. However, distributing a single task between multiple teams necessitates a handoff process, where one team's development efforts and task planning are communicated from one team ending their shift to the next that will continue the effort. Data management is, therefore, critical to the success of this business model. Efficiency in data management is achieved through a strategic leveraging of key tools, models, and concepts.
---
paper_title: Patterns in Effective Distributed Software Development

paper_content:

As with many other industries today, software development must increasingly adapt to teams whose members work together but are geographically distributed. Many factors have contributed to this rise in distributed software development (DSD), including companies' desires to leverage skilled resources wherever they can be found and to reduce costs by working in different labor markets. Its increasing popularity has led to diverse industrial experience, which has in turn led to some best practices and an initial body of knowledge.
---
paper_title: A reference model for successful Distributed Development of Software Systems

paper_content:

Distributed development (DD) of software systems is an issue of increasing significance for organisations today, all the more so given the current trend towards globalisation. In this paper we present a reference model which can be used as a reference point for any company wishing to review their own DD scenario. This is particularised in two forms, one as an exemplar model for a global (GSD) development scenario and one as a particularisation of this for intra-national DD scenarios. By drawing from eight case-studies on DD, we present ten general strategies for successful DD together with our reference model which characterises an ideal DD situation.
---
paper_title: Mapping Global Software Development Practices for Follow-the-Sun Process

paper_content:

Several organizations are developing software processes twenty-four hours, seven days per week, with geographically distributed teams. This environment of software development enables to implement the Follow-the-Sun (FTS) strategy. In this study, we perform a mapping of the literature based upon electronic searching in digital libraries to identify applied practices in development environments twenty-four hours in which can be apply FTS strategy. Ours results present practices and many key aspects to FTS implementation.
---
paper_title: Modelling software development across time zones

paper_content:

Economic factors and the World Wide Web are turning software usage and its development into global activities. Many benefits accrue from global development not least from the opportunity to reduce time-to-market through 'around the clock' working. This paper identified some of the factors and constraints that influence time-to-market when software is developed across time zones. It describes a model of the relationships between development time and the factors and overheads associated with such a pattern of work. The paper also reports on a small-scale empirical study of software development across time zones and presents some lessons learned and conclusions drawn from the theoretical and empirical work carried out.
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paper_title: Culture in Global Software Development - A Weakness or Strength?

paper_content:

Cultural diversity is assumed to be a fundamental issue in global software development. Research carried out to date has raised concerns over how to manage cultural differences in global software development. Our empirical research in India, a major outsourcing destination, has helped us investigate this complex issue of global software development. A triangulated study based on a questionnaire, telephonic interviews and structured face-to-face interviews with 15 Project Managers and Senior Executives has revealed how they cope with the demands of cultural differences imposed by a geographically distributed environment. This research study brings forward various techniques initiated by these project managers to deal with cultural differences that exist within geographically distributed software development teams. We also discuss different strategies and make a case to explain how to build on and take advantage of cultural differences that exist in global software development.
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paper_title: Selecting Locations for Follow-the-Sun Software Development: Towards a Routing Model

paper_content:

Deciding where to establish development locations is a strategic decision in the field of Follow-the-Sun software development. Our research has focussed on two factors: a. the optimal time zone difference between locations, and b. the natural ease of communication. The former depends on the required transfer time for handing over work from one location to the other. The latter involves communication aspects such as language. The objective is to construct a routing model, which calculates (sub)optimal deployment routes. The routing model consists of an algorithm that calculates sequences of locations from a dataset containing demographic data about these locations. The possible sequences are prioritized based on a set of parameters. The routing model has been implemented in a website. The website can be used to validate the routing model, but moreover can be used as a first support when considering potential locations for Follow-the-Sun software development.
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paper_title: Use of collaborative technologies and knowledge sharing in co-located and distributed teams: Towards the 24-h knowledge factory

paper_content:

The relocation of knowledge work to emerging countries is leading to an increasing use of globally distributed teams (GDT) engaged in complex tasks. In the present study, we investigate a particular type of GDT working 'around the clock': the 24-h knowledge factory (Gupta, 2008). Adopting the productivity perspective on knowledge sharing (Haas and Hansen, 2005, 2007), we hypothesize how a 24-h knowledge factory and a co-located team will differ in technology use, knowledge sharing processes, and performance. We conducted a quasi-experiment in IBM, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, over a period of 12months, on a GDT and a co-located team. Both teams were composed of the same number of professionals, provided with the same technologies, engaged in similar tasks, and given similar deadlines. We found significant differences in their use of technologies and in knowledge sharing processes, but not in efficiency and quality of outcomes. We show how the co-located team and the GDT enacted a knowledge codification strategy and a personalization strategy, respectively; in each case grafting elements of the other strategy in order to attain both knowledge re-use and creativity. We conclude by discussing theoretical contributions to knowledge sharing and GDT literatures, and by highlighting managerial implications to those organizations interested in developing a fully functional 24-h knowledge factory.
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paper_title: The object-oriented team: Lessons for virtual teams from global software development

paper_content:

We investigated coordination and communication processes in global virtual software development teams in three Indian multinational technology firms. While some of the teams in our study experienced many of the same things observed in prior research, some operated in strikingly different ways, so different, in fact, that they led us to propose a new type of organization for global virtual teams: the object-oriented team. In contrast to the traditional virtual team approach which strives to tightly couple team members through information rich media such as face-to-face and telephone communication, the object-oriented team strives to decouple team members through the use of well defined processes and semantically rich media that clarify, extend and constrain meaning. The set of principles embodied ire the object-oriented team we believe may be applicable to many types of virtual teams, especially larger teams facing complex problems.
---
paper_title: Your time zone or mine?: a study of globally time zone-shifted collaboration

paper_content:

We conducted interviews with sixteen members of teams that worked across global time zone differences. Despite time zone differences of about eight hours, collaborators still found time to synchronously meet. The interviews identified the diverse strategies teams used to find time windows to interact, which often included times outside of the normal workday and connecting from home to participate. Recent trends in increased work connectivity from home and blurred boundaries between work and home enabled more scheduling flexibility. While email use was understandably prevalent, there was also general interest in video, although obstacles remain for widespread usage. We propose several design implications for supporting this growing population of workers that need to span global time zone differences.
---
paper_title: Agile Software Processes for the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory Environment

paper_content:

The growing adoption of outsourcing and offshoring concepts is presenting new opportunities for distributed software development. Inspired by the paradigm of round-the-clock manufacturing, the concept of the 24-hour knowledge factory (24HrKF) attempts to make similar transformations in the arena of IS: specifically to transform the production of software and allied intangibles to benefit from the notion of continuous development by establishing multiple collaborating sites at strategically selected locations around the globe. As the sun sets on one site, it rises on another site with the dayâ€™s work being handed off from the closing site to the opening site. In order to enable such hand offs to occur in an effective manner, new agile and distributed software processes are needed, as delineated in this article.
---
paper_title: Follow the Sun Workflow in Global Software Development

paper_content:

Follow the sun (FTS) has interesting appeal-hand off work at the end of every day from one site to the next, many time zones away, in order to speed up product development. Although the potential effect on "time to market" can be profound, at least conceptually, FTS has enjoyed few documented industry successes because it is acknowledged to be extremely difficult to implement. In order to address this "FTS challenge," we provide here a conceptual foundation and formal definition of FTS. We then analyze the conditions under which FTS can be successful in reducing duration in software development. We show that handoff efficiency is paramount to successful FTS practices and that duration can be reduced only when lower within-site coordination and improved personal productivity outweigh the corresponding increase in crosssite coordination. We also develop 12 research propositions based on fundamental issues surrounding FTS, such as calendar efficiency, development method, product architecture and handoff efficiency, within-site coordination, cross-site coordination, and personal productivity. We combine the conceptual analysis with a description of our FTS exploratory comparative field studies and draw out their key findings and learning. The main implication of this paper is that understanding calendar efficiency, handoff efficiency, within-site coordination, and cross-site coordination is necessary to evaluation-if FTS is to be successful in reducing software development duration.
---
paper_title: FTSProc: A Process to Alleviate the Challenges of Projects that Use the Follow-the-Sun Strategy

paper_content:

Searching for competitive advantages as low coast and productivity gains, organizations choose to distribute their software development to other countries with more affordable production costs. Increasingly, projects are being developed in geographically distributed environments, featuring the distributed software development. However, the challenges inherent in this software development environment are significant. Among these challenges is the time zone difference, which can also be tackled as an advantage, through the use of the follow-the-sun development. However, the follow-the-sun strategy presents some challenges, mainly alongside the handoffs. Therefore, this experimental research focuses to present a development process to alleviate the challenges found in project that uses this strategy, focusing in the development phase from the SDLC. Yet, it performs an experiment to evaluate the created process' efficiency. In this experimental process it was found evidences the created process actually alleviate the challenges found in the follow-the-sun strategy.
---
paper_title: Management at the Outsourcing Destination - Global Software Development in India

paper_content:

In Global Software Engineering Research, there have been many studies carried out from the perspective of the company who is outsourcing software development. However, very few studies focus on the companies to whom the software development is being outsourced. In this paper, we highlight India as a major outsourcing destination and present experience from companies that manage outsourced software development. In carrying out this activity, Indian software companies have confronted various issues which are local, remote, internal and external and for which solutions have been instigated. This paper presents research carried out within Indian software companies in which we investigated issues faced when implementing global software development and the solutions used by these companies. We present these solutions so that they can be followed by other outsourcing destinations thus enabling them to operate successfully across geographical, national and international cultural boundaries.
---
paper_title: Global Software Development Challenges: A Case Study on Temporal, Geographical and Socio-Cultural Distance

paper_content:

Global software development (GSD) is a phenomenon that is receiving considerable interest from companies all over the world. In GSD, stakeholders from different national and organizational cultures are involved in developing software and the many benefits include access to a large labour pool, cost advantage and round-the-clock development. However, GSD is technologically and organizationally complex and presents a variety of challenges to be managed by the software development team. In particular, temporal, geographical and socio-cultural distances impose problems not experienced in traditional systems development. In this paper, we present findings from a case study in which we explore the particular challenges associated with managing GSD. Our study also reveals some of the solutions that are used to deal with these challenges. We do so by empirical investigation at three US based GSD companies operating in Ireland. Based on qualitative interviews we present challenges related to temporal, geographical and socio-cultural distance.
---
paper_title: Follow the Sun Workflow in Global Software Development

paper_content:

Follow the sun (FTS) has interesting appeal-hand off work at the end of every day from one site to the next, many time zones away, in order to speed up product development. Although the potential effect on "time to market" can be profound, at least conceptually, FTS has enjoyed few documented industry successes because it is acknowledged to be extremely difficult to implement. In order to address this "FTS challenge," we provide here a conceptual foundation and formal definition of FTS. We then analyze the conditions under which FTS can be successful in reducing duration in software development. We show that handoff efficiency is paramount to successful FTS practices and that duration can be reduced only when lower within-site coordination and improved personal productivity outweigh the corresponding increase in crosssite coordination. We also develop 12 research propositions based on fundamental issues surrounding FTS, such as calendar efficiency, development method, product architecture and handoff efficiency, within-site coordination, cross-site coordination, and personal productivity. We combine the conceptual analysis with a description of our FTS exploratory comparative field studies and draw out their key findings and learning. The main implication of this paper is that understanding calendar efficiency, handoff efficiency, within-site coordination, and cross-site coordination is necessary to evaluation-if FTS is to be successful in reducing software development duration.
---
paper_title: FTSProc: A Process to Alleviate the Challenges of Projects that Use the Follow-the-Sun Strategy

paper_content:

Searching for competitive advantages as low coast and productivity gains, organizations choose to distribute their software development to other countries with more affordable production costs. Increasingly, projects are being developed in geographically distributed environments, featuring the distributed software development. However, the challenges inherent in this software development environment are significant. Among these challenges is the time zone difference, which can also be tackled as an advantage, through the use of the follow-the-sun development. However, the follow-the-sun strategy presents some challenges, mainly alongside the handoffs. Therefore, this experimental research focuses to present a development process to alleviate the challenges found in project that uses this strategy, focusing in the development phase from the SDLC. Yet, it performs an experiment to evaluate the created process' efficiency. In this experimental process it was found evidences the created process actually alleviate the challenges found in the follow-the-sun strategy.
---
paper_title: Leveraging temporal and spatial separations with the 24-hour knowledge factory paradigm

paper_content:

The 24-H Knowledge Factory facilitates collaboration between geographically and temporally distributed teams. The teams themselves form a strategic partnership whose joint efforts contribute to the completion of a project. Project-related tasks are likewise distributed, allowing tasks to be completed on a continuous basis, regardless of the constraints of any one team's working hours. However, distributing a single task between multiple teams necessitates a handoff process, where one team's development efforts and task planning are communicated from one team ending their shift to the next that will continue the effort. Data management is, therefore, critical to the success of this business model. Efficiency in data management is achieved through a strategic leveraging of key tools, models, and concepts.
---
paper_title: Management at the Outsourcing Destination - Global Software Development in India

paper_content:

In Global Software Engineering Research, there have been many studies carried out from the perspective of the company who is outsourcing software development. However, very few studies focus on the companies to whom the software development is being outsourced. In this paper, we highlight India as a major outsourcing destination and present experience from companies that manage outsourced software development. In carrying out this activity, Indian software companies have confronted various issues which are local, remote, internal and external and for which solutions have been instigated. This paper presents research carried out within Indian software companies in which we investigated issues faced when implementing global software development and the solutions used by these companies. We present these solutions so that they can be followed by other outsourcing destinations thus enabling them to operate successfully across geographical, national and international cultural boundaries.
---

Title: A Systematic Literature Review of Best Practices and Challenges in Follow-the-Sun Software Development

Section 1: Introduction
Description 1: Introduce the concept of Follow-the-Sun (FTS) in Global Software Development (GSD), state the aim of the study, and provide an overview of the paper structure.

Section 2: Follow-the-Sun Software Development
Description 2: Define and describe the concept of Follow-the-Sun in the context of software development, its purpose, and key operational elements such as handoff.

Section 3: Research Method
Description 3: Explain the systematic literature review (SLR) methodology used, including the research protocol, data sources, search strings, selection process, data extraction, and validity threats.

Section 4: Results
Description 4: Present the findings of the study based on the research questions, detailing the identified challenges and best practices in FTS.

Section 5: Discussion
Description 5: Analyze the results, discuss the frequencies and significance of identified challenges and best practices, and highlight insights and implications for future research and practice.

Section 6: Conclusions and Future Work
Description 6: Summarize the key conclusions of the study, discuss its contributions to the field, and propose directions for future research.