Rather than deciding whether or not to get involved in global sourcing, many companies are facing decisions about whether or not to apply agile methods in their distributed projects. These companies are often motivated by the opportunities to solve the coordination and communication difficulties associated with global software development. Yet while agile principles prescribe close interaction and co-location, the very nature of distributed software development does not support these prerequisites. Smite, Moe, and Agerfalk structured the book into five parts. In "Motivation" the editors...

This SpringerBrief discusses multiple forms of open-source-inspired outsourcing: opensourcing, innersourcing and crowdsourcing. It uses a framework-based comparison to explain the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. By pointing out characteristics along with benefits and pitfalls of each approach, the authors provide nuanced and research-based advice to managers and developers facing software sourcing decisions. The differences and commonalities of these three emerging approaches are carefully analyzed. Chapters explore the primary challenges of reliability, efficiency and robustness...