Ongoing economic challenges are affecting and impacting business and society in nearly every industry and geographical region. Taking decisive action to reprioritize the way we are doing business is a key focus for companies. Around the world, companies are taking the necessary measures that will enable us to adjust to today’s reality and to future challenges. In adjusting and refocusing we need to stay on course to ensure that short-term challenges won’t distract us from planning for longer-term opportunities to achieve sustainable growth. Information technology is part of the solution if handled in a truly global scale.
With decades of experience in making companies globally successful, I believe that we are faced with a unique opportunity to nurture global economic prosperity. Global software engineering, IT outsourcing, and rightshoring are all pieces toward readjusting the software and IT business. The prestigious journal Harvard Business Manager recently stated that outsourcing with global IT services and software development ranks as one of the top business ideas of the past 100 years. This certainly makes sense, because software and IT industries are today truly global. Be it offshoring or outsourcing, component or service integration, managing global software engineering has rapidly become a key competence for successful engineers and managers. The diversity of suppliers, cultures, and products requires dedicated techniques, tools, and practices to overcome challenges.
This book, Global Software and IT, written by my colleague and friend Christof Ebert, summarizes experiences and provides guidance, processes, and approaches for successfully handling global software development and outsourcing. It offers tons of practical hints and concrete explanations of “how to do it better.” Readers will get an opportunity to explore the current state of practice in this area as well as new thoughts and trends that will shape the future.
Global Software and IT provides a framework for mastering global software and IT, and also summarizes experiences from companies around the globe. The book is very readable and provides a wealth of knowledge for both practitioners and researchers. With its many practical insights, this book will be a useful desktop reference for industry practitioners and managers within the software engineering and IT communities.
Global IT and software development, service, and provisioning imply a great organizational and industrial shift in structure. Let’s rise to the challenge and, in doing so, raise the quality of life and our economic prosperity for generations to come. Now is the time to grow and improve global software and IT and thus empower all of the world’s citizens to participate in the human network.