Important announcement

Dear visitor,

Please note that this OpenCourseWare platform will be replaced at the end of 2026 by a new platform (under the same url ocw.tudelft.nl).

Courses and their contents that are currently available the platform will partly be migrated. URL’s for this content will change and content might be unavailable for some time. In addition, some courses will not be available anymore.

If you are linking to specific courses on this platform (for instance for your students), please take timely measures to avoid problems with access. Possible actions are:

  • Download the materials to your local platform (laptop, server)
  • For educators only (including TU Delft lecturers): Contact us at ocw@tudelft.nl and inform us what course you are using in what context (institute, program, period of use, number of students). We will research (in collaboration with the authors of the course) and decide if we will migrate the course, and if yes, can supply you with a new url.

Thank you.

Home Courses Global Software Engineering

Overview

Software engineering operates ever more frequently in globally distributed settings, in a practice that is known as Globally Distributed Software Engineering (GDSE). In this course, you will obtain a practical overview of the organization and operation of software engineering of this practice. As such, it is aimed at professionals in distributed software development teams, and executives setting up and leading such teams who would like to develop the required technical and organizational skills.

The course covers the subject in an accessible and practical manner. Through video lectures, group assignments and exercises, you will be familiarized with the advantages and disadvantages of GDSE, the practical consequences of GDSE and its technological feasibilities and infeasibilities. You will learn about real-world experiences of users and examples of GDSE applications such as outsourcing, offshore software development, near-shoring and multi-partner systems development.

You will apply the knowledge gained through hands-on experience with GDSE by working together with team members from different countries as a distributed team; and through analysis of best-practice examples. Together with other course participants you will prepare a number of artefacts that build on the body of knowledge of GDSE and so have the chance to contribute to this growing field of knowledge.

Guest lectures from industry experts and researchers will be an integral part of the course. These lectures will demonstrate how GDSE is handled in industry, how decision-makers lead their teams in this context, and what is the state-of-the-art in GDSE research

What you will learn

The course consists of seven main topics:

  1. Globally Distributed Software Engineering
  2. Distributed Agile
  3. The Software Engineer and GDSE
  4. Boardroom: C-level Decision-Making
  5. GDSE Research
  6. Time and Cultural Differences
  7. GDSE Locations: Near-shoring and Offshoring
Creative Commons License
Globally distributed software engineering by TU Delft OpenCourseWare is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://ocw.tudelft.nl/courses/globally distributed software engineering/.
Back to top
[sg_popup id=6]