A Systematic Approach to Setting Up Distributed Global Collaborations for Software-based Products in the Automotive Domain
This provides a systematic framework for automotive companies to manage global software development collaborations, though it is incremental as it synthesizes existing knowledge.
The thesis tackles the lack of a holistic approach for setting up global collaborations in software-based automotive products by analyzing literature to extract key topics like risks and success factors, resulting in a structured method for companies to guide long-term collaborations.
There is an increasing need for organizations to collaborate with internal and external partners on a global scale for creating software-based products and services. Many aspects and risks need to be addressed when setting up such global collaborations. Different types of collaborations such as engineering collaborations or innovation-focused collaborations need to be considered. Further aspects such as cultural and social aspects, coordination, infrastructure, organizational change process, and communication issues need to be examined. Although there are already experiences available with respect to setting up global collaborations, they are mainly focusing on certain specific areas. An overall holistic approach that guides companies in systematically setting up global collaborations for software-based products is widely missing. The goal of this thesis is to analyze existing literature and related information and to extract topics that need be taken into account while establishing global software development collaborations - to identify solutions, risks, success factors, strategies, good experiences as well as good examples. This information is structured in a way so that it can be used by companies as a well-grounded holistic approach to guide companies effectively in setting up long-term global collaborations in the domain software development. The presented approach is based on scientific findings reported in literature, driven by industry needs, and confirmed by industry experts.