Global software
development (GSD) is the new business paradigm that organisations are
adopting to meet their
business challenges and derive competitive advantage. Global
software development
efforts have increased in recent years, and such development seems
to become a business
requirement for various reasons, including cost, availability of
resources, and the need
to locate development closer to customers, speeding time-to-
market, obtaining extra
knowledge, and increasing operational efficiency. Increased
globalisation of
software development creates software engineering challenges due to the
impact of time zones,
diversity of culture, communication, or distance. However, there is still
much to know about
global software development before the discipline becomes mature.
This special issue aims
to assess the gap between the state of the art and the state of the
practice.