Limited considerations have been given to transform the agile development activities in global software development (GSD). In GSD, agile development becomes more complex due to geographically distributed teams. This study reported the factors that are important to transform the agile in GSD, using systematic literature review. A total of 30 success factors (SFs) were identified from the 75 selected primary studies. We further analyse the investigated SFs based on organisations types and organisations size with the aims to analyse the significance of identified SFs with respect to organisation types and size. Moreover, the identified SFs were mapped into six categories of the robust framework and the mapping results shows the project management is the key category of the identified factors. We believe that this study can provide a framework for tackling problems associated with agile activities in a GSD, which is significant to the success and progression of GSD firms. Copyright © 2020 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.