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

Stina Matthiesen; Pernille Bjørn

doi:10.1145/2675133.2675232

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

Stina Matthiesen
, Pernille Bjørn

Research output: Conference Article in Proceeding or Book/Report chapter › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-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.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CSCW '15 Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing
Number of pages	15
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Publication date	2015
Pages	876-890
ISBN (Print)	978-1-4503-2922-4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/2675133.2675232
Publication status	Published - 2015

Keywords

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

Access to Document

10.1145/2675133.2675232

NexGSD: Next Generation Technology for Global Software Development
Bardram, J. (PI), Bjørn, P. (CoI), Babar, M. A. (CoI), Chauhan, A. (CoI), Esbensen, M. (CoI), Jensen, R. E. (CoI), Matthiesen, S. (CoI), Jeuris, S. (CoI), Zahedi, M. (CoI), Jensen, R. E. (CoI), Tell, P. (CoI), Dittrich, Y. (CoI) & Giuffrida, R. (PI)
Innovation Fund Denmark
01/01/2011 → 31/12/2016
Project: Research

Cite this

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

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.",

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language = "English",

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Why Replacing Legacy Systems Is So Hard in Global Software Development: An Information Infrastructure Perspective. / Matthiesen, Stina; Bjørn, Pernille.
CSCW '15 Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing. Association for Computing Machinery, 2015. p. 876-890.

Research output: Conference Article in Proceeding or Book/Report chapter › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

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AB - 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.

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KW - outsourcing

KW - ethnographic study

KW - information infrastructure

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KW - interface integration

KW - system interfaces

KW - excavation work

KW - Global software development (GSD)

KW - outsourcing

KW - ethnographic study

KW - information infrastructure

KW - legacy systems

KW - interface integration

KW - system interfaces

KW - excavation work

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BT - CSCW '15 Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing

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

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Keywords

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NexGSD: Next Generation Technology for Global Software Development

Cite this