Follow-the-Sun (FTS) is a strategy in Global Software Development (GSD) focusing on software development twenty-four hours, seven days per week with physically distributed teams. working only during daylight hours. The major benefit is the development duration or the potential in reducing the time-to-market. IBM in 1990s was probably one of the first companies to record the implementation of FTS in its software development teams globally [1]. It is defined as the percentage of all of the calendar time (e.g., 24 * 7 = 168 hours available per week) that is used productively for work, so, a 40-hour workweek utilizes 23.8 percent of the calendar workweek, showing that there is a lot of room for calendar efficiency improvement. Formal systems such as discussion forums or internal Wiki sites may prove to be useful. Apart from the usual difficulties faced in globally distributed software development, FTS also has the additional challenges of managing daily job hand-offs. Slide 1 of 2. With this intuitive, cloud-based solution, everyone can work visually and collaborate in real time while building flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, and more. This can be done by evaluating when your customers need you most, and carefully considering how to meet them where they are. A clear path will help your troubleshooting teams and engineers coordinate and get to the bottom of the issue faster., Mastering the handoff process (moving project tasks from one team to the next) is probably the hardest, but most crucial, element of successfully implementing a follow the sun model. If the sun is shining over a region, be it San Francisco, Paris, Hong Kong, or Sydney, business is being conducted there. This can be achieved in a variety of ways. She is a leading digital transformation evangelist for the pharma and life sciences industries. IEEE, 2005. Typical challenges such as coordination, communication and culture differences presents a bigger challenge to FTS than GSD, as FTS involves daily hand-offs. Although there were very less successful cases, some companies still showed positive intent in applying FTS model. Prezi, for example, has teams in two locations: San Francisco and Budapest. Still, it did, and that is where our plan and ability to coordinate staff remotely across the world helped keep all the processes running. For example, our customer and partner Zuora offers 24/7/365 support coverage. Many factors influence the need to develop the products quickly such as avoiding contract creep, schedule slippages, budget overruns and other managerial reasons. While you wont all be in the same room for these meetings, video conferences are fairly easy to set up and schedule. Another culture would not offer their help unless they were asked while the third considered that presenting the problem was a sufficient invitation for willing team members to jump in and help. For some, it may make more sense to have people in the office rather than working from home to expand and grow without opening an office first. Challenges and improvements in distributed software development: A systematic review. 0000068561 00000 n Please select this checkbox if you do not wish to receive marketing communications from Zendesk. Selecting locations for follow-the-sun software development: Towards a routing model. 0000002842 00000 n Entertaining and motivating original stories to help move your visions forward. Major lessons learned in the study that could improve FTS from their experience include: It was also observed that hand-offs between different sites were especially difficult in the weekends. Several workflows seem to be using the FTS model, but in reality this is not always the case. Or, consider the approach at Solium, which provides an equity management platform that performs real-time trades 21 hours per day. The follow the sun model is certainly not a new concept - nor is it unique to corporate travel management or the travel industry. FTS could provide significant benefit in dealing with these aspects. HICSS09. 0000063267 00000 n However, FTS is not. Agile has several characteristics which support FTS adoption [6]. 0000068636 00000 n 0000007104 00000 n Treinen and Miller Frost [19] published a case documenting two cases of FTS implementation at IBM. The method literally follows the sun so work is performed during normal work hours anywhere in the world. IEEE, 2013. Follow the Sun Well explain how to calculate and reduce turnover in your organization. For example, a baseline work week is 30 hours after taking into account non-task activities. Are you ready to follow the sun?. Shifting to a remote-based model streamlined our FTS approach with the ability to provide client services without opening an office location first. IBM Software Group Rational softwareRational User Conference 2003 Presentation Overview Changing Times - The trend towards globalisation . Sure, this could mean 24/7/365. The model you choose, develop, and refine should be the one that works best for you and your customers. We identified three main themes, namely challenges and best practices, location selection and hand-offs management. [9] Rini van Solingen and Menno Valkema. One key benefit of a follow the sun model is high uptime. CX is a top priority for financial services providers, and for good reason. culture and language). In an Agile based methodology, all major development activities (design, code, test and integrate) are carried out in every iteration cycle. There is only one site that owns the product at any point in time. The Follow-the-Sun (FTS) strategy is a type of global development with the purpose of reducing the duration of the project development and hence, increases productivity. The focus is on using automated tools which simplify the repetitive tasks. Lastly, we showed that there was a study which researched hand-offs management. 0000065082 00000 n 128 0 obj <> endobj xref 128 43 0000000016 00000 n Unpublished EDS working paper, 2004. The traditional "follow the sun" model is a type of global workflow in which issues can be handled by and passed between offices in different time zones, increasing responsiveness and reducing delays. A follow the sun model can help your organization provide 24/7/365 support to customers across the globe, regardless of time or location. Presenting support model PPT slide template. WDSGlobal case study: In 2004 a study conducted within the company of WDSGlobal reported the following list of what worked in FTS software development (when doing Extreme Programming) [7]: The study reported the following lessons that were learned: The study involved teams from the USA, UK and Singapore. This will help avoid any confusion on who ultimately owns the process., Take stock of all the team members available to maintain your IT architecture. Because it is always daytime somewhere in the world, you need a way to support customers around the globe no matter what time zone they are in and without too much delay. Sign-up and get customer insights, trends, and more in your inbox. 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Having multiple subteams on deck to keep a project moving along 24 hours a day empowers your entire IT department to set realistic short-term deadlines, avoid working overtime, and complete roadmaps more efficiently., Think about what your IT team is really trying to accomplish on your roadmap for the next year. Now that youve done all the groundwork of defining workload capability, visualizing infrastructure, and hammering out the handoff process, youre ready to get your new model signed off by stakeholders. For me, staying connected with clients in every corner of the globe was always important. Response times are increased, delays in problem-solving are reduced, and customers are satisfied. Software developmentusing the 24-hour knowledge factory paradigm. Each production site works during the day as a subteam and it needs within-site coordination. Managing and continuing recruiting and growing regionally helped implement the FTS model for all departments and reinforced the ability to provide top-notch customer service. Nurture and grow your business with customer relationship management software. We've got a true, "follow the sun" model, allowing access to support engineers [.] Follow The Sun Model: 24/7 Customer Support | Gladly A key observation from this study is that even after decade long progress of FTS, its challenges are not overcome yet and it may be relevant to notice that there are no substantial benefits to FTS, thus FTS achievability is an empirical question for which a necessary first step is a consistent definition. The implementation of FTS, if not practiced correctly, may result in failures and projects going over budget [10]. time zone difference and hand offs management), communication and culture. They also divide their support to cater to two groups of customers: participants (employees at companies) and client administrators (HR teams administering equity and compensation). 0000063342 00000 n Now, what does this look like in action? However, manually building the documentation from scratch could be a daysor even weekslong processan unnecessary burden when youre trying to implement a new model., We can help you visualize your cloud infrastructure in just a few seconds.