Global Software Servicing: Observational Experiences at Microsoft

Software servicing in an important software engineering activity that is gaining significant importance in the global software development context. In this paper we report on a study conducted to understand the processes, practices and problems in the Windows servicing organization in Microsoft’s India Development Center. We report on our observations and experiences from this study on the main processes and practices adopted for software servicing in Windows and the main problems pertaining to information needs and communication issues. We also discuss our experiences in this study within the context of prior research defined in the global software development community to explain the ways in which Microsoft addresses these common problems.