Task allocation in distributed software development aided by verbal decision analysis

Abstract

One of the most critical activities in distributed project management is the allocation of tasks among remote teams. In distributed software development projects, to allocate a task for a team in any of the locations, the project manager needs consider several factors such as team maturity and time zone difference among the sites. Deciding which task to allocate for each team constitutes a decision-making task. This decision is usually made subjectively. The verbal decision analysis is an approach based on solving problems through multi-criteria qualitative analysis, which means it considers the analysis of subjective criteria. This paper describes the application of a verbal decision analysis methodology called ORCLASS to classify the most relevant factors that the project managers should take into account when allocating tasks in distributed software development projects.