A Study of Communication and Coordination in Collaborative Software Development

Abstract

A virtual software development team consists of members who may not be physically at the same location at the same time and use electronic modes of communication. We examine the communication, coordination, and satisfaction of members as they work with both co-located and remote members in virtual software development teams. We perform an interpretive evaluation of the qualitative comments. The results of this study indicate that virtual teams can have communication and coordination problems if not properly managed but successful virtual teams can work effectively despite the lean electronic communication. Members who use a lean communication mode are more likely to break communication with their team members and tend to be more critical of the contributions of their remote members. Our results suggest that successful teams communicate information that is perceived to have value and develop a shared context within the communication and coordination structure. We discuss the implications of this study for collaborative software development.