Publications
Journal Article
Backsourcing of Information Technology - A Systematic Literature Review
Submitted to a journal (2023).Status: Submitted
Backsourcing of Information Technology - A Systematic Literature Review
Context: Backsourcing is the process of insourcing previously outsourced activities. When companies experience environmental or strategic changes, or challenges with outsourcing, backsourcing can be a viable alternative. While outsourcing and related processes have been extensively studied in information technology, few studies report experiences with backsourcing.
Objectives: We intend to summarize the results of the research literature on the backsourcing of IT, with a focus on software development. By identifying practical relevance experience, we aim to present findings that may help companies considering backsourcing. In addition, we aim to identify gaps in the current research literature and point out areas for future work.
Method: Our systematic literature review (SLR) started with a search for empirical studies on the backsourcing of IT. From each study we identified the contexts in which backsourcing occurs, the factors leading to the decision to backsource, the backsourcing process itself, and the outcomes of backsourcing. We employed inductive coding to extract textual data from the papers identified and qualitative cross-case analysis to synthesize the evidence from backsourcing experiences.
Results: We identified 17 papers that reported 26 cases of backsourcing, six of which were related to software development. The cases came from a variety of contexts. The most common reasons for backsourcing were improving quality, reducing costs, and regaining control of outsourced activities. The backsourcing process can be described as containing five sub-processes: change management, vendor relationship management, competence building, organizational build-up, and transfer of ownership. Furthermore, we identified 14 positive outcomes and nine negative outcomes of backsourcing. Finally, we aggregated the evidence and detailed three relationships of potential use to companies considering backsourcing.
Conclusion: The backsourcing of IT is a complex process; its implementation depends on the prior outsourcing relationship and other contextual factors. Our systematic literature review may contribute to a better understanding of this process by identifying its components and their relationships based on the peer-reviewed literature. Our results may also serve as a motivation and baseline for further research on backsourcing and may provide guidelines and process fragments from which practitioners can benefit when they engage in backsourcing.
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector, Department of IT Management |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2023 |
Journal | Submitted to a journal |
Publisher | x |
Keywords | backshoring, Backsourcing, information technology, software development, Software Engineering, systematic literature review |
Edited books
Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming
In 22nd International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2021, Virtual Event, June 14–18, 2021, Proceedings. Vol. 419. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2021.Status: Published
Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector |
Publication Type | Edited books |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Secondary Title | 22nd International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2021, Virtual Event, June 14–18, 2021, Proceedings |
Volume | 419 |
Publisher | Springer International Publishing |
Place Published | Cham |
ISBN Number | 978-3-030-78097-5 |
ISSN Number | 1865-1348 |
URL | https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-030-78098-2 |
DOI | 10.1007/978-3-030-78098-2 |
Journal Article
Archetypes of delay: An analysis of online developer conversations on delayed work items in IBM Jazz
Information and Software Technology 129 (2021): 106435.Status: Published
Archetypes of delay: An analysis of online developer conversations on delayed work items in IBM Jazz
Project(s) | Department of IT Management |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Journal | Information and Software Technology |
Volume | 129 |
Pagination | 106435 |
Publisher | {Elsevier |
Finding the sweet spot for organizational control and team autonomy in large-scale agile software development
Empirical Software Engineering 26 (2021).Status: Published
Finding the sweet spot for organizational control and team autonomy in large-scale agile software development
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Journal | Empirical Software Engineering |
Volume | 26 |
Number | 101 |
Date Published | Jan-09-2021 |
Publisher | Springer |
ISSN | 1382-3256 |
URL | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10664-021-09967-3/fulltext.html |
DOI | 10.1007/s10664-021-09967-3 |
Proceedings, refereed
Organizational implications of agile adoption: a case study from the public sector
In 29th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE '21). New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2021.Status: Published
Organizational implications of agile adoption: a case study from the public sector
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Conference Name | 29th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE '21) |
Publisher | ACM |
Place Published | New York, NY, USA |
ISBN Number | 9781450385626 |
URL | https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3468264https://dl.acm.org/doi... |
DOI | 10.1145/346826410.1145/3468264.3473937 |
Why Do Organizations Adopt Agile Scaling Frameworks?
In Proceedings of the 15th ACM / IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM '21). New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2021.Status: Published
Why Do Organizations Adopt Agile Scaling Frameworks?
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | EDOS: Effective Digitalization of Public Sector |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Year of Publication | 2021 |
Conference Name | Proceedings of the 15th ACM / IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM '21) |
Pagination | 1-12 |
Publisher | ACM |
Place Published | New York, NY, USA |
ISBN Number | 9781450386654 |
URL | https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3475716https://dl.acm.org/doi... |
DOI | 10.1145/347571610.1145/3475716.3475788 |
Proceedings, refereed
Enabling Team Autonomy in a Large Public Organization
In Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming - Workshops. Springer, 2020.Status: Published
Enabling Team Autonomy in a Large Public Organization
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | Department of IT Management |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Year of Publication | 2020 |
Conference Name | Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming - Workshops |
Pagination | 245–252 |
Publisher | Springer |
Journal Article
Revealing the State-of-the-Art in Large-Scale Agile Development: A Systematic Mapping Study
arXiv preprint arXiv:2007.05578 (2020).Status: Submitted
Revealing the State-of-the-Art in Large-Scale Agile Development: A Systematic Mapping Study
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | Department of IT Management |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2020 |
Journal | arXiv preprint arXiv:2007.05578 |
Publisher | arXiv |
Journal Article
Status Quo in Requirements Engineering: A Theory and a Global Family of Surveys
ACM Transactions of Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM) 28, no. 2 (2019).Status: Published
Status Quo in Requirements Engineering: A Theory and a Global Family of Surveys
Requirements Engineering (RE) has established itself as a software engineering discipline during the past decades. While researchers have been investigating the RE discipline with a plethora of empirical studies, attempts to systematically derive an empirically-based theory in context of the RE discipline have just recently been started. However, such a theory is needed if we are to define and motivate guidance in performing high quality RE research and practice. We aim at providing an empirical and valid foundation for a theory of RE, which helps software engineers establish effective and efficient RE processes. We designed a survey instrument and theory that has now been replicated in 10 countries world-wide. We evaluate the propositions of the theory with bootstrapped confidence intervals and derive potential explanations for the propositions. We report on the underlying theory and the full results obtained from the replication studies with participants from 228 organisations. Our results represent a substantial step forward towards developing an empirically-based theory of RE giving insights into current practices with RE processes. The results reveal, for example, that there are no strong differences between organisations in different countries and regions, that interviews, facilitated meetings and prototyping are the most used elicitation techniques, that requirements are often documented textually, that traces between requirements and code or design documents is common, requirements specifications themselves are rarely changed and that requirements engineering (process) improvement endeavours are mostly intrinsically motivated. Our study establishes a theory that can be used as starting point for many further studies for more detailed investigations. Practitioners can use the results as theory-supported guidance on selecting suitable RE methods and techniques.
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | The Certus Centre (SFI) |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2019 |
Journal | ACM Transactions of Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM) |
Volume | 28 |
Issue | 2 |
Number | 9 |
Publisher | ACM |
URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.07951 |
Proceedings, refereed
Benefits and Challenges of Adopting the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe): Preliminary Results from a Multivocal Literature Review
In Product-Focused Software Process Improvement. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2018.Status: Published
Benefits and Challenges of Adopting the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe): Preliminary Results from a Multivocal Literature Review
Over the past few years, the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) has been adopted by a large number of organizations to scale agile to large enterprises. At the moment, SAFe seems to be the most predominant agile scaling framework. Despite the current popularity of SAFe in the software intensive industry, there exists surprisingly little scientific research on the benefits and challenges of SAFe adoption. To collect the existing knowledge on this topic, we conducted a multivocal literature review, which includes both peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed case studies and experience reports on organizations that have adopted SAFe. We identified 52 unique organisations adopting SAFe, five from the scientific literature and 47 from the grey literature.
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | Simula Metropolitan Center for Digital Engineering |
Publication Type | Proceedings, refereed |
Year of Publication | 2018 |
Conference Name | Product-Focused Software Process Improvement |
Pagination | 334–351 |
Publisher | Springer International Publishing |
Place Published | Cham |
ISBN Number | 978-3-030-03673-7 |
Journal Article
Naming the Pain in Requirements Engineering: Contemporary Problems, Causes, and Effects in Practice
Empirical Software Engineering (2016).Status: Published
Naming the Pain in Requirements Engineering: Contemporary Problems, Causes, and Effects in Practice
Afilliation | Software Engineering |
Project(s) | The Certus Centre (SFI) |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2016 |
Journal | Empirical Software Engineering |
Publisher | Springer |
DOI | 10.1007/s10664-016-9451-7 |