Rethinking Coordination in Large-Scale Software Development

Abstract

Coordination was early identified as a key challenge in software development, and in particular in large development projects. With the arrival of agile methods and their increasing use also in large-scale projects, this calls for rethinking how the software engineering community addresses coordination. We argue for increasing the focus on coordination in software engineering and describe four directions for research. Focus on these areas can supplement advice given in current development methods with relevant research-based advice.