UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH · FALL SEMESTER 2026

Global Software Management: Course Companion

This page accompanies the lecture Global Software Management at theUniversity of Zurich, Department of Informatics, taught by Dr. Oliver Gausmann in the fall semester of 2026. The slides stay lean on citations; the full references live here. After each lecture, the session's sources and the frameworks worth keeping are published on this page.

Module 03SM22MI0049 · Lecture 03VL22MI0049 · 3 ECTS · MSc level · Taught in English

Assessment: multiple-choice midterm exam (50 percent) and capstone group project (50 percent). Both components must be passed independently.

Official entry in the UZH course catalogue

Schedule

1. Fri, 18 SepLecture day

   Block 1 opening: Fundamentals of Global Software Management

   Sessions 1 and 2 · 14:00 to 18:00 · AFL-E-020

2. Fri, 25 SepLecture day

   Block 1: Fundamentals, part two

   Sessions 3 and 4 · 14:00 to 18:00 · AFL-E-020

3. Fri, 2 OctLecture day

   Block 2 opening: Governance, Processes, and Compliance

   Sessions 5 and 6, with guest lecture · 14:00 to 18:00 · AFL-E-020

4. Fri, 9 OctLecture day

   Block 2: Governance, Processes, and Compliance, part two

   Sessions 7 and 8 · 14:00 to 18:00 · AFL-E-020

5. Fri, 16 OctOnline

   Online check-in

   Q&A and exam preparation · time announced in class

6. Fri, 23 OctExam

   Midterm exam, blocks 1 and 2

   Multiple choice, closed book · 14:00 to 15:00 · AFL-F-121

7. Fri, 30 OctOnline

   Online check-in

   Q&A and capstone kickoff · time announced in class

8. Fri, 6 NovLecture day

   Block 3 opening: AI-Augmented Workflows in Global Teams

   Sessions 9 and 10, with guest lecture · 14:00 to 18:00 · AFL-E-020

9. Fri, 13 NovOnline

   Online check-in

   Q&A and capstone coaching · time announced in class

10. Fri, 20 NovLecture day

    Block 3: AI-Augmented Workflows, part two

    Sessions 11 and 12 · 14:00 to 18:00 · AFL-E-020

11. Fri, 27 NovOnline

    Online check-in

    Q&A and capstone coaching · time announced in class

12. Fri, 4 DecLecture day

    Block 4: Future Scenarios in Global Software Management

    Sessions 13 and 14, with guest lecture · 14:00 to 18:00 · AFL-E-020

13. Fri, 11 DecCapstone

    Supervised capstone group work

    14:00 to 18:00 · AFL-E-020

14. Fri, 18 DecCapstone

    Capstone presentations

    Graded component · 14:00 to 18:00 · AFL-E-020

Core reading

Research foundations as cited in the course slides. Session-specific references follow here during the semester.

1. M. E. Conway, How Do Committees Invent? Datamation, 1968.
2. D. Šmite et al., Empirical Evidence in Global Software Engineering, 2010.
3. I. Richardson et al., Global Software Engineering: A Software Process Approach, 2010.
4. T. Hildenbrand et al., Orchestration of Global Software Engineering Projects, 2013.
5. N. Forsgren et al., The SPACE of Developer Productivity, ACM Queue, 2021.
6. P. Tell et al., Global Software Engineering in the Age of Cloud and AI, IEEE Software, 2022.
7. DORA, State of DevOps Report, annual editions.
8. GitHub, Octoverse Report, annual editions.

Regulation and standards in the course

1. Regulation (EU) 2016/679, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
2. Regulation (EU) 2022/2554, Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA).
3. Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Artificial Intelligence Act.
4. ISO/IEC 27001, information security management systems.
5. ISO/IEC 12207, software life cycle processes.
6. ISO/IEC 38500, governance of IT for the organization.