THE CHALLENGES OF APPLYING DISTRIBUTED AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

With the increasing use of distributed software development, there has been growing interest in the application of different methods of software development. The software development industry is investigating the use of Agile software development methods with the distributed development instead of the traditional heavyweight methods in order to improve the development efficiency and quality. However, research has shown that combining Agile and distributed development could pose significant challenges, regarding to the contradiction between Agile values and the distributed development environment. This systematic review intends to identify the challenges of applying this approach. The various challenges have been classified into five categories: lack of communication and collaboration, lack of management and control, cultural differences, time zones differences, and lack of Agile skills. The outcome of the paper has enabled the creation of a systematic map that shows the current stage of knowledge about this development approach. A major conclusion of this study is that there is a lack of empirical research and a dire need for further investigation in order to identify the expected challenges and benefits of this combinatory approach.