Follow-the-sun methodology in a stochastic modeling perspective

Stochastic modeling of globally distributed projects has become a way to evaluate the performance of teams working in different time zones. The interest in extracting and analyzing quantitative data from geographically dispersed teams has grown throughout the years as major development companies were attracted by potential benefits. We direct our attention to Follow-The-Sun (FTS), a special case of globally distributed projects, where work is handed off every day from one development site to the next on a different time zone. The main benefit of FTS is to reduce project duration providing continuous software development. Our objective in this paper is to discuss a formal mapping of FTS characteristics to a stochastic model in order to predict performance indices of teams such as availability and risk assessment. The modeling effort aims to enhance understanding and feasibility evaluation for FTS projects.