Coordination in Large-Scale Software Teams, Research Paper Example

During the process of implementation of a new application, a number of factors are worth consideration to achieve the anticipated success in such an initiative. Some of the items may appear to be obvious but less consideration of such items may result to unfavorable consequences. These include communication, solid testing and involvement of employees. Neglect of such items during the process of implementation of a new application is commonly associated with difficulties in solving problems, disagreements on intended goals, delays in meeting deadlines and less satisfaction. Therefore, an informatics specialists needs to evaluate integration communication, solid testing and involvement of employees as critical factors in implementation of a new application (Begel, A., Nagappan, Poile & Layman, 2009).

In the process, the informatics specialists will also require information concerning the following features for the components of the new application.

• A well defined schedule of payment
• An outline of performance criteria for the system
• Any penalties that associated with performance issues as well as delivery delays
• The requirements of documentation
• Any training that will be required for the users
• A training or a test system to be included
• Issue of resolution, turnaround time as well as escalation policy
• Support needed by the vendor at the time of live event of the application and even thereafter (Cataldo, Roberts & Herbsleb, 2009).

All these features must be clearly defined and understood by the informatics specialists so that he can effectively guide the implementation team. The contribution of this vital information to the implementation team is to offer a criterion that can easily facilitate for leveraging and holding the accountability of vendors to their deliverables.

References

Cataldo, M., Roberts, J. A. & Herbsleb, J. D., (2009). “Software Dependencies, Work Dependencies, and Their Impact on Failures”. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 99: 864–878.

Begel, A., Nagappan, N., Poile, C. & Layman, L., (2009). “Coordination in Large-Scale Software Teams”. Proceedings of the 2009 ICSE Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects on Software Engineering: 1–9.