InfoWorld: Leveraging a Global Advantage

“As the globalization of software development unfolds all around
us, it’s clear that dollars-per-line-of-code is but one of the
equation’s variables. Other factors influencing this view include
time to market, the speed with which project teams and resources
can be assembled, and the rate at which tools and techniques can be
transferred between offshore outfits and U.S and European
companies. The Hollywood industry provides a clue about the
framework needed to support global software development. In its
1995 story ‘Why every business will be like show business,’ Inc.
stated that the film industry–which assembles on-demand teams that
work to achieve predictable results under time and budget
pressure–defines an organization model that will be co-opted by
other industries in the future.

“But another model exists that is more directly relevant to
software development: the open-source movement.

“‘It’s no accident that all significant open-source projects are
global,’ says Andy Singleton, founder of Needham, Mass.-based
Assembla. ‘That thought should be stuck in the mind of anyone who
wants to produce world-class software…'”

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