Continuous coordination a new paradigm to support globally distributed software development projects

Abstract

We introduce and explicate a novel development paradigm for distributed software engineering development tools, Continuous Coordination. Continuous Coordination constitutes a paradigm for collaborative systems, which combines elements of traditionally formal, processoriented approaches with those of the more informal, awareness-based approaches, thus addressing some of the issues of global software development:- The lack of awareness and informal communication among developers are factors that contribute to problems arising during global software development. The Continuous Coordination paradigm improves awareness and enables a degree of self-coordination by integrating existing tools (based on formal, process-oriented approaches) with awareness for coordination (based on informal, peripheral and visual cues).- Developers often face challenges when they attempt to integrate artifacts produced by heterogeneous tools. Continuous Coordination is defined in terms of several general design principles which are implemented in new and existing tools. Consequently, practitioners can adopt the paradigm immediately and incrementally; moreover, Continuous Coordination allows them to more readily integrate the artifacts produced. Abstract (English) Along with the rapid globalization of companies, the globalization of software development