An Evaluation Method for Offshore Software Development by Structural Equation Modeling

Abstract. To determine the magnitude of risk factors in offshore software development, we explain how structural equation modeling works for questionnaire samples. Each response to our questionnaire consists of one offshore software development instance including its result in terms of success/failure and fourteen attributes. The attributes are classified into software, vendor or project properties. Collecting 172 responses from Japanese project managers and following a series of modifications from a basic model to the final model, we have found the followings: 1) the vendor properties mainly affect the result of development, 2) the software properties do not affect the result directly but did affect it indirectly through the project properties, and 3) control parameters such as vendor companies and software type do not improve the fit indices of the models.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: SEAFOOD
• Authors: Yoshihisa Wada, Daiki Nakahigashi, Hiroshi Tsuji
• Keywords: Offshore Software Development, Project Properties, SEAFOOD 2007, Software Development Instance, Software Engineering