  This study presents an analysis of the most recent literature addressing
global software engineering (GSE). We examine the current state of GSE research
using a new Systematic Snapshot Mapping (SSM) technique. We analysed 275 papers
published between January 2011 and June 2012 in peer-reviewed conferences,
journals and workshops. Our results provide a coarse-grained overview of the
very recent literature addressing GSE, by classifying studies into predefined
categories. We also follow and extend several prior classifications to support
our synthesis of the data. Our results reveal that currently GSE studies are
focused on Management and Infrastructure related factors. Most of the studies
are conducted at the organizational level using methods such as interviews,
surveys, field studies and case studies. We use inter-country network analysis
to confirm that the USA and India are major players in GSE, with USA-India
collaborations being the most frequently studied, followed by USA-China.
Specific groups of countries have dominated the reported GSE project locations.
In contrast, regions including Central Asia, South Asia (except India), Africa
and South East Asia have not been covered in these studies. While a
considerable number of GSE-related studies have been published they are
currently quite narrowly focused on exploratory research and explanatory
theories. The critical research paradigm has been untouched, perhaps due to a
lack of criteria and principles for carrying out such research in GSE. An
absence of formulative research, experimentation and simulation, and a
comparative focus on evaluative approaches, all suggest that existing tools,
methods and approaches from related fields are being tested in the GSE context.
However, these solutions may not scale to cover GSE-related issues or may
overlook factors/facets specific to GSE.
