A case study of distances in a large co-located software development organisation

Abstract

Communication and collaboration is a major challenge for large-scale software development. Cognitive and psychological distance between individuals and teams affect this collaboration and can cause communications gaps. We propose a novel method for assessing distance between teams, and explore potential explanations for these distances. In an exploratory case study of the quality assurance department at Axis Communications, we used interactive posters to collect data and obtained a 52% response rate from the 175 test engineers. We identified low psychological distance as an indicator of a company culture with open and frequent communication, and of a team with good social networking skills and well-functioning points of contact. We found that low cognitive distance is an indicator of differences regarding the responsibilities of a team; within the same system and between different types of systems. We also found correlations between psychological and cognitive distance. Large organisations may apply our concept to assess distance between teams, and our finding can be useful in interpreting these distances. Furthermore, our results provide a basis for further research on how the concept of distances can be used to assess collaboration within large organisations.