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The majority of organisations are globalising their software development activities by following the ideas of global software development (GSD). The motivation behind the adoption of GSD phenomena are the list of benefits gained by the software industry. However, there are different challenges face by the GSD organisations, particularly the issues related to software process improvement (SPI). The aim of this study is the identification and classification into categories of the success factors that can impact SPI initiatives taken in GSD organisations. The systematic literature review (SLR) method has been used to extract the success factors from the literature. SLR phases, 'planning, conducting, and reporting the review' have been followed to perform this study. Totally, 15 success factors were identified and classified into the six main categories. The authors have also reported the critical success factors of SPI, i.e. management commitment, staff involvement, roles and responsibilities, communication, and resources allocation. This article also reported the similarities and differences between the success factors classified on the bases of client‐vendor organisation and size of the organisation. The identified factors can contribute towards the implementation of SPI programme in both client and vendor GSD organisations because these factors represent key areas of process improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, many software development organisations are globalising their work throughout the world. The motivation behind the software globalisation is competitive advantage and business profits that it yields to an organisation. Besides, these organisations are facing various challenges due to the distributed nature of the software development. However, software process improvement (SPI) is one of the biggest issues in the domain of global software development (GSD). The aim of this research study is to identify success factors and barriers to assist GSD organisations for successful implementation of SPI program. Accordingly, a systematic literature review approach was adopted to identify the success factors and barriers. A total of nine success factors and six barriers were identified that could impact SPI. Using the criteria of the factors having a frequency >50% as critical, total four success factors were ranked as critical success factors, i.e. management commitment, staff involvement, allocated resources and pilot projects. Moreover, total four barriers were classified as critical barriers, i.e. lack of resources, inexperienced staff, organisational politics and time pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]