Why Replacing Legacy Systems Is So Hard in Global Software Development: An Information Infrastructure Perspective

Stina Matthiesen, Pernille Bjørn

Publikation: Konference artikel i Proceeding eller bog/rapport kapitelKonferencebidrag i proceedingsForskningpeer review

Abstract

We report on an ethnographic study of an outsourcing global software development (GSD) setup between a Danish IT company and an Indian IT vendor developing a system to replace a legacy system for social services administration in Denmark. Physical distance and GSD collaboration issues tend to be obvious explanations for why GSD tasks fail to reach completion; however, we account for the difficulties within the technical nature of software system task. We use the framework of information infrastructure to show how replacing a legacy system in governmental information infrastructures includes the work of tracing back to knowledge concerning law, technical specifications, as well as how information infrastructures have dynamically evolved over time. Not easily carried out in a GSD setup is the work around technical tasks that requires careful examination of mundane technical aspects, standards, and bureaucratic forms, as well as the excavation work that keeps the information infrastructure afloat.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TitelCSCW '15 Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing
Antal sider15
ForlagAssociation for Computing Machinery
Publikationsdato2015
Sider876-890
ISBN (Trykt)978-1-4503-2922-4
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2015

Emneord

  • Global software development (GSD)
  • outsourcing
  • ethnographic study
  • information infrastructure
  • legacy systems
  • interface integration
  • system interfaces
  • excavation work

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