Background

For many years “Swedish Quality” was an established worldwide concept and Swedish products were sought after (and often more expensive) because they were considered to be of the highest quality. Recent economic challenges, competition, tight budgets and shortage of resources combined with inability to employ people in high cost countries forces many software companies to adjust their development strategies and look for allies in the less expensive countries through different global software development strategies. As a result, it is not uncommon that parts of software development work are being contracted to third parties or colleagues from owned subsidiaries situated in often less expensive countries. While companies expect cheaper and better development, the assumed benefits of global software development are often only partially if at all achieved. Both relocation and distribution of work may significantly impede project efficiency and, more importantly, have a secondary harder to capture impact on software quality. Challenges associated with sourcing may prevent companies to innovate, to continuously improve and evolve their products, and eventually result in a market decline.

Project focus

TEDD project targets industrial needs by focusing on support of global software practice (focus on efficiency and productivity), with methods and tools for continuous monitoring of the levels of quality, technical degradation and signs of decay and ensuring evolvability of the products (focus on quality and technical excellence) in the context of agile and lean development (focus on lead times). We aim at gathering empirical evidence to shed light on the quality of the development in the context of global software development, and provide input for companies to adjust their ongoing offshore strategies and make informed decisions in the future. By focusing on the evolvability of the products after being transferred or distributed, we plan to also assess the abilities of the organizations to innovate and ensure system-centric development — values that are key in the Swedish culture, which is built on consensual decision-making, constructiveness and supportive management.    

Details

TEDD project is led by Blekinge Institute of Technology and runs from April 1, 2013 until March 31, 2017 (the project is put on hold during 2015)

Related links

Those interested in offshoring software development can visit our previous project website – http://bth-r2d2.weebly.com – R2D2 project (2010-2013) was devoted to decision support with a special emphasis on software product transfers.