Globally Distributed Teams Research Articles

Effective Communication in Globally Distributed Scrum: A Model and Practical Guidance

A trend in information systems development is for globally distributed teams to use agile methods and frameworks such as Scrum. In globally distributed (GD) software development, a known challenge is effective team communication. Researchers, however, cannot evaluate effective communication in GD teams using Scrum unless they know what effective communication means in that context. This qualitative study contributes a theoretical model of effective communication in GD Scrum teams and practical guidance for practitioners. Ten industry professionals working in GD Scrum teams were interviewed to capture their understanding of effective communication. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the interviews and form a basis for the model and the practical guidance. This novel model consists of communication transparency, communication quality, and communication discipline, which together lead to the alignment of team understanding (i.e., a team-level shared mental model). This theoretical model lays the ground for future research into the effect of Scrum practices on communication in GD contexts, and the effect of communication on team and project success. For practitioners, this study contributes 11 practical actions that professionals recommend for improving and sustaining effective communication.

When Three Is Better than Two: How Culture Can Bridge Collaboration in Globally Distributed Teams

Globally distributed teams (GDTs) have become essential tools for organisations to expand, quickly adapt and restructure to remain competitive in the current economic climate. The theoretical literature has been discussing the advantages, but also the barriers, limitations and challenges in GDTs’ internal practices and processes. However, scholars have not yet sufficiently examined empirically the implications of cultural differences when teams operate in virtual contexts. To address this gap, this study aims to explore how different cultures interact and stimulate work collaboration in GDTs. Following the acquisition and merger of Volvo and Renault, we conducted a qualitative study of the collaborative work of GDTs located in Brazil, Sweden and France during the creation of Volvo Group’s VM truck. Our results highlight that the interaction of the three involved national cultures led to better collaboration between members of a GDT. Furthermore, as a managerial contribution, this study suggests that culture can be understood as an agent of transformation to facilitate or improve the collaboration process.

Collaborative knowledge sharing in global distributed teams: antecedents of innovation performance

Purpose Existing research on collaborative innovation mechanisms from the perspective of global operation is very limited. This paper aims to address the research gap by studying the factors influencing globally distributed teams’ innovation performance, especially how effective knowledge sharing between distributed teams promotes collaborative team innovation. Design/methodology/approach This research proposes a model to investigate how collaborative knowledge sharing affects global operations [team dispersion, task orientation, information and communication technology (ICT) usage] and innovation performance based on the data collected from 167 managers in 40 local Chinese IT and offshoring firms. Using the theory of Cognitive Diversity and Innovation Diffusion and Synergy, separate hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the proposed model. Findings The findings of this study demonstrate that effective collaborative knowledge sharing plays a crucial role in enhancing innovation performance in a global operation. Specifically, innovation capacity can be improved by task orientation, ICT usage and team dispersion. Originality/value This research study contributes to the development of global distributed operations and innovation among distributed teams in multinational corporations.

P165: A Non-hierarchical mentorship model for professional development

Introduction: Mentorship is an essential component of professional development and benefits include increased career satisfaction, scholarship, and efficiency of academic promotion. The Mastermind group, a collaborative, network-based model for mentorship has gained popularity in the business world. It comprises of a group of colleagues that provide mentorship and career advice for each other through regularly scheduled meetings. The group benefits from the combined intelligence and accumulated experience of the participants, who may be at different career stages. Methods: Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM; www.aliem.com), a digital health professions education organization, conducted two Mastermind groups for 14 team members in 2017. The groups included all levels of academic rank from full professor to instructors, and represented 14 different medical schools in North America. Each Mastermind group completed a self-assessment summarizing their professional strengths and weaknesses, two homework assignments, and two 90-minute videoconference meetings, using a structured, moderator-facilitated format. Meetings were conducted on Google Hangouts on Air© (Google Inc.). In the initial group meeting, participants discussed their self-assessments, current projects, and career challenges. The second meeting allowed discussion of suggested professional development resources for each participant, actionable next steps, and an accountability timeline for each participant. The free, cloud-based platforms and voluntary basis for the Mastermind groups resulted in a zero-cost innovation. Results: In a post-intervention survey, the 14 participants rated the experience as 9.4/10 (response rate 100%) using a Likert scale. In a quasi-experimental analysis participants cited the need for career advice or assistance with a project as their reason for participating. Participants received specific resource recommendations during the sessions, including books, training courses, or conferences. Contacts outside the group for additional mentorship were made possible given the breadth of networks among the participants. All participants had at least one identifiable next step with accountability to the group. Overall, the participants described a synergy of energy, commitment to one anothers longitudinal success, and benefit from the diverse range of talent and expertise in the group. Many of the members discussed plans to replicate this mentorship model at their own institutions. Conclusion: Our experiences suggest that the Mastermind conceptual framework is an easily replicated, feasible, zero-cost, and effective model for professional development. Though the model was originally proposed as a method for in-person discussions, we report a more modern, online experience for professional development in our diverse, globally-distributed team.

A conceptual framework to study the role of communication through social software for coordination in globally-distributed software teams

BackgroundIn Global Software Development (GSD) the lack of face-to-face communication is a major challenge and effective computer-mediated practices are necessary to mitigate the effect of physical distance. Communication through Social Software (SoSo) supports team coordination, helping to deal with geographical distance; however, in Software Engineering literature, there is a lack of suitable theoretical concepts to analyze and describe everyday practices of globally-distributed software development teams and to study the role of communication through SoSo. ObjectiveThe paper proposes a theoretical framework for analyzing how communicative and coordinative practices are constituted and maintained in globally-distributed teams. MethodThe framework is based on the concepts of communicative genres and coordination mechanisms; it is motivated and explicated through examples from two qualitative empirical cases. ResultsCoordination mechanisms and communicative genres mutually support each other. In particular, communication through SoSo supports team members in establishing, developing and maintaining social protocols within the distributed team. Software Engineering tools and methods provide templates for coordination mechanism that need to be adapted and adopted in order to support the project at hand. SoSo serves as a medium for the necessary metawork. The theoretical framework proposed is used to describe both the practices in an established industrial project and the establishing of practices in three student teams. The framework allows explaining the heterogeneity of practices observed. ConclusionsThis paper presents a conceptual framework to study the role of communication through SoSo for coordination in GSD. The usefulness of the framework is supported by empirical findings on the role of SoSo. The theoretical framework can be beneficial for future research that aims to analyze and describe not only the role of SoSo, but also how communicative and coordinative practices can be established and maintained in GSD teams.

The Development of Capabilities in Globally Distributed Teams

As organizations increasingly rely on globally distributed teams (GDTs) to carry out knowledge intensive activities, the understanding of how GDTs develop capabilities is still limited. In this study we investigate how GDTs adapt routines and build up capabilities and the interplay between team and organizational capabilities. We collected qualitative data through documents and interviews with fourteen GDTs operating in IT consulting companies, with subgroups located in North America, Europe, India, and South America and we built a grounded model that highlights the role of brokers in the development of team capabilities. While brokers help in the creation of mutual knowledge, their activity reduces the accuracy of perceptions about distant coworkers. Mutual knowledge, combined with a limited accuracy of perceptions, reduces the need to adapt team routines over time. The negative effect of brokers on the creation of team capabilities is reduced when individual professional identities, characterized by values such as visibility and autonomy, trigger the search for more accurate perceptions of distant colleagues and clients with the objective of adapting team routines and gaining more stimulating work, especially when based in locations distant from team clients. Finally, we identified a continuous interplay between team routines and organizational routines in organizations characterized by innovativeness and flexibility as core attributes of their identity. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications.

Integrating Knowledge through Consistency between Leadership and Technology in Distributed Teams

The literature on distributed work has recognized the importance of enhancing our understanding of how leadership processes change in globally distributed teams (GDTs), and of the interplay between leadership processes and the use of collaborative technologies. Following the theoretical framework of e- leadership, the aim of this paper is to explore how emergent and formal leadership processes co-evolve with the use of collaborative technologies in a GDT and their influence on team performance. We conducted a multiple case study of five GDTs engaged in European scientific collaborations. Our analysis suggests that the consistency between leadership processes and technology use is related to better knowledge integration, which is an important antecedent of overall team performance. The grounded model that we build contributes to the literature on distribute teams effectiveness, knowledge integration, and team science, and provides practical hints to team managers and policy makers.

FACTORS AFFECTING DISTRIBUTED AGILE PROJECTS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

In the last decade we have witnessed a growth in outsourcing and outshoring development. Following the promise of reducing costs and round-the-clock development, software organizations have grown from local to global enterprises. In the same decade, agile software development methodologies have emerged as a viable alternative to produce software. There is a myriad of agile processes and methodologies now available for any software development organization to choose from. These agile processes follow the values signed in the Agile Manifesto that preaches the exaltation of the individual programmer, high feedback, customer interaction and just enough planning and documentation. But how does global distribution affect these values? Can agile software development be implemented under the global software development context? This paper presents a systematic literature review aimed at identifying factors that affect the adoption of agile factors in global distributed teams. Our findings show that the literature is still in its initial case study publication stage. But most notably, we have found that only a few of the factors found are related to the agile values. Even though more research is clearly needed, this can be a signal that the factors affecting team distribution has more impact on software development than the values and practices preached by the agile processes.

Collaboration in Global Distributed Teams: An Interdisciplinary Review

This survey aims to characterize the interdisciplinary study of human collaboration in global distributed teams. Literature on this topic spreads over many research areas including computer-supported cooperative work, economics, management, organizational behavior, and software engineering, among others. The key insight of this review is to set forth a well-founded, unified taxonomy that categorizes the literature from different research domains. The taxonomy has two dimensions: primary research goals and ways of knowing. Using this taxonomy, we classified 199 recent journal papers (since 2005) in leading journals from 10 areas. In classifying the existing literature, we identified the opportunities and challenges to furthering the knowledge and application of research in global distributed teams. Stemming from the review, one of our proposals is to apply Evolutionary Game Theory (EGT) to modeling human collaboration in global distributed teams and we demonstrate ways of applying EGT with specific examples. Three specific research directions are proposed in section 4. In addition to classifying journal papers, we also classified 74 papers since 2010 in leading conferences since conference papers are generally considered as formal publication in computer and information sciences. This supplement is presented as an appendix (see APPENDIX II).

Offshore-Onsite Subgroup Dynamics In Globally Distributed Teams

Purpose: The increased use of distributed work arrangements across organizational and national borders calls for in-depth investigation of subgroup dynamics in globally distributed teams (GDTs). This paper focuses on the social dynamics that emerge across subgroups of onsite-offshore teams and affect the process of knowledge sharing. Methodology/Approach: We conducted a qualitative study of 8 GDTs working around the clock. These GDTs were part of organizations involved in offshoring of knowledge intensive work. Findings: Our evidence shows that the specific status cue of being onsite drives status differentials across subgroups; these differentials are reduced when the client is directly involved with the activities of the team. The negative effect of high status differentials on knowledge sharing is mitigated by the presence of straddlers, who assist in the transfer of codified knowledge. Conversely, when status differentials are low, straddlers hamper spontaneous direct learning between onsite members and offshore members. Practical implications: Our work has practical implications for organizations that want to use GDTs to achieve a faster (and cheaper) development of products and services. Managers should carefully design the organizational structures of GDTs and consider upfront the trade offs related to client involvement in teamwork and the use of straddlers across sites. Originality/value of paper: The paper contributes to the literature on subgroup dynamics, applying and extending the theory of status characteristics theory.

An Empirical Investigation of Client Managers’ Responsibilities in Managing Offshore Outsourcing of Software-Testing Projects

Despite an increase in the offshore outsourcing of information technology (IT) projects, little research has been carried out to identify issues that client managers (CMs) encounter when managing projects with offshore vendors. Also research on how CMs' responsibilities change to effectively manage offshore outsourcing relationships has received little attention. We conducted a case study of an offshore outsourcing relationship between a U.S. client and its Indian vendors engaged in software-testing projects. In this paper, we identify six project management activities that underwent substantial change. We then describe the coping strategies that CMs employed effectively to deal with changing project management activities. We conclude by discussing the interplay of multiple global boundary variables and its effect on the project management activities. We integrate insights from literature on global distributed teams, organizational communications, and offshore outsourcing to theoretically ground the relationship between the boundary variables and the coping strategies.

Learning Product Design Through Globally Distributed Teams: A Way to Enhance Innovation Capabilities in Mechatronics

Creating product innovations involves the need to understand the social context in which the innovation is created and ultimately the context in which it is to be used. The use of globally distributed teams (GDTs) in engineering education to understand and enhance the social and technological interaction could catalyze the process of creating innovation. This paper proposes a framework for the analysis and support of the GDT setting. The proposed framework builds on the standardized open system interconnection model for network communication consisting of seven interconnected layers. As it has been suggested in prior studies, a successful collaboration in a GDT relies on several critical factors that build on each other. Organizing and supporting these factors in an interconnected layered scheme could better clarify the interaction between social and technological aspects. A case study of a student medical device project is analyzed using the proposed framework. The project involved students from University of Minnesota, MN and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.

Power and trust in global virtual teams

Introduction Our broad contention in this article is that though the current understanding of virtual teams has advanced in significant areas over the last few years, it has not taken sufficient account of power dynamics within virtual teams nor sought to explore the nature of power within geographically distributed teams. Indeed, despite the overwhelming interest on virtual teams, our understanding of computermediated interactions and virtual team dynamics has remained limited. Reliance on mediated interactions and especially those that are text-based and asynchronous such as email has been seen to inhibit the development of good working and collaborative relationships; 2,3,4 such views often derive from the media richness theory which suggests that face-to-face is a richer information medium. 1 Our argument, however, is that even though the value of face-to-face communication in creating and promoting a rich information context needs to be highly appreciated, we also have to acknowledge that significant interactions remain computermediated and provide extensive opportunities for trust development. The challenge is to be able to manage power differentials effectively in order to allow collaboration to foster within a virtual team environment. Power, defined as the capability of one party to exert influence on another to act in a prescribed manner is often a function of both dependence and the use of that dependence as leverage. 5,6 The question therefore is: how is power exercised in global virtual teams and how can it effectively impact trust development and overall team performance in such distributed environments? We pursued a qualitative study of 18 global distributed teams within a global IT organization, a Fortune 500 organization. The study involved interviews with individuals in the specific organization who were part of culturally diverse, geographically dispersed and technology-enabled global virtual teams. Interviewees were encouraged to recall their experiences from working in a global virtual team that they judged to have 'worked well,' and conversely their experiences from working in a team that 'did not work well.' This approach resulted in two case scenarios from each interviewee. The interviews were guided by open-ended questions which aimed to explore the background to the team, the performance levels, the distribution of power amongst the team members, the levels of trust within the team, and how trust changed over time. Analysis found 11 scenarios where teams worked well, seven where teams did not work well and two where the performance improved over time. From these, 7 teams experienced good trust relationships, seven did not, and four developed trust over time. Table 1 presents the main findings from our interviews and shows the key characteristics or each team in terms of performance, power differentials and trust. The findings are interpretivist in nature and are based on the interviewees' own experiences and perceptions. Based on the findings, the teams were categorised as 'High-Trust' and 'Low-Trust' teams and are distinguished here in terms of their power dynamcis. The four teams that developed trust over time fall within the former category; also when conflicting views were expressed, the decision was based on the consensus of the team members interviewed (such as Team 1). Table 2 details the common power issues identified within 'High-Trust' and 'Low-Trust' global virtual teams.

Offshore‐onsite subgroup dynamics in globally distributed teams

PurposeThe increased use of distributed work arrangements across organizational and national borders calls for in‐depth investigation of subgroup dynamics in globally distributed teams (GDTs). The purpose of this paper is to focus on the social dynamics that emerge across subgroups of onsite‐offshore teams and affect the process of knowledge sharing.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative study of eight GDTs working around the clock is conducted. These GDTs are part of organizations involved in offshoring of knowledge intensive work.FindingsThe evidence shows that the specific status cue of being onsite drives status differentials across subgroups; these differentials are reduced when the client is directly involved with the activities of the team. The negative effect of high status differentials on knowledge sharing is mitigated by the presence of straddlers, who assist in the transfer of codified knowledge. Conversely, when status differentials are low, straddlers hamper spontaneous direct learning between onsite members and offshore members.Practical implicationsThis work has practical implications for organizations that want to use GDTs to achieve a faster (and cheaper) development of products and services. Managers should carefully design the organizational structures of GDTs and consider upfront the trade offs related to client involvement in teamwork and the use of straddlers across sites.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the literature on subgroup dynamics, applying and extending the theory of status characteristics theory.

Use of collaborative technologies and knowledge sharing in co-located and distributed teams: Towards the 24-h knowledge factory

The relocation of knowledge work to emerging countries is leading to an increasing use of globally distributed teams (GDT) engaged in complex tasks. In the present study, we investigate a particular type of GDT working ‘around the clock’: the 24-h knowledge factory ( Gupta, 2008). Adopting the productivity perspective on knowledge sharing ( Haas and Hansen, 2005, 2007), we hypothesize how a 24-h knowledge factory and a co-located team will differ in technology use, knowledge sharing processes, and performance. We conducted a quasi-experiment in IBM, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, over a period of 12 months, on a GDT and a co-located team. Both teams were composed of the same number of professionals, provided with the same technologies, engaged in similar tasks, and given similar deadlines. We found significant differences in their use of technologies and in knowledge sharing processes, but not in efficiency and quality of outcomes. We show how the co-located team and the GDT enacted a knowledge codification strategy and a personalization strategy, respectively; in each case grafting elements of the other strategy in order to attain both knowledge re-use and creativity. We conclude by discussing theoretical contributions to knowledge sharing and GDT literatures, and by highlighting managerial implications to those organizations interested in developing a fully functional 24-h knowledge factory.

Offshore-Onsite Team Dynamics: Applications of the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory

Purpose: Starting from the observation that new types of distributed work arrangements across organizational and national borders are emerging, we decided to investigate a particular type of globally distributed team (GDT): the 24-hour knowledge factory, where individuals work around the clock or follow the sun. Our research question is: How do individuals share knowledge during hand offs and what are the factors that affect the hand off process in GDTs adopting the 24-hour knowledge factory model?. Methodology/Approach: We conducted an interview based qualitative study to conduct detailed investigation of the internal processes of 8 GDTs using the 24-hour knowledge factory model, in Indian organizations involved in offshoring of knowledge intensive work with Western clients, and we coded our evidence using a grounded theory approach (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). Findings: Our grounded theory shows that, in GDTs adopting the 24-hour knowledge factory model, knowledge sharing during hand offs across locations is hampered by the emergence of status differentials across team members with similar expertise, position, organizational affiliation and ethnicity. The negative effect of status differentials is mitigated by the perception of closeness with an external party - the client. Practical implications: Our work has practical implications for organizations that want to adopt the 24-hour knowledge factory model to achieve a faster (and cheaper) development of products and services. To make a GDT work around the clock, an organization should not only place attention to technical issues (such as acquiring sophisticated and rich collaborative technologies), but also to potentially disrupting team dynamics that may emerge across subgroups. Originality/value of paper: Overall, this work contributes to a better understanding of the interplay between status differentials, synchronization, and knowledge transfer in globally distributed teams.

Social Ties in Globally Distributed Software Teams: Beyond Face-to-Face Meetings

This article explores the process through which social ties in globally dispersed software development teams are created and renewed. The paper argues that becauseface-to-face (F2F) meetings and ICT are limited in providing support for the build-up and renewal of social ties in long, complex globally distributed projects, otheractivities should be introduced before and after F2F meetings. Based on case studies carried out at SAP and LeCroy, and through the examination of activities introducedin these teams before and after F2F meetings, the paper concludes that globally distributed teams (GDTs) should be "re-socialized" to ensure that interpersonal tiesdo not fade away and collaborative work is not hampered. The article provides an array of activities and communications tools at the individual, group andorganizational level for the introduction, build-up and renewal stages of social ties. It concludes by offering managers practical implications and making suggestions forfuture research.

Towards the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory: Offshore-Onsite Team Dynamics

Globalization and the spread of advanced information and communication technologies have encouraged a transition to distributed, virtual work practices. By reducing the costs of communication, these technologies now make it possible for more people than ever before to collaborate and compete in real time on different kinds of work from anywhere in the world - using computers, email, networks, teleconferencing, and dynamic new software applications. Thus, according to Thomas Friedman in his book, World is Flat, The global competitive playing field has being leveled (Friedman, 2005, p.8). Connected to the flattening of the world is the increase in the diffusion of offshoring of knowledge intensive work towards emerging countries, such as India, China, and Romania. Although offshoring is becoming a part of our everyday social lexicon, we find little empirical evidence in the academic literature on the implications of offshoring for organizations and knowledge workers, or on the disruptive forces that offshoring brings to local, day-to-day work practices. Certainly, the literature on geographically dispersed or globally distributed teams (GDTs) shows the many organizational challenges of distributed collaboration, exploring issues like compatibility with existing hierarchical structures, awareness of other team member's activities, increased coordination costs, trust between distant members, status differentials, and leadership (e.g., Mohrman, 1998, Paul and McDaniel, 2004, Metiu, 2006, Weisband, in press). Moreover, previous studies explain how distance limits some of the important benefits that come from collocation, such as spontaneous conversation, collaborative social environments, mutual learning and influence (e.g. Hinds and Kiesler, 2002; Cummings, 2004). Some of this research was conducted in situations involving offshoring, but much of it reflects distributed work that remained onshore and does not distinguish between different types of globally distributed work arrangements (Saunders and Ahuja, 2006). Many of the conclusions and insights from these studies, therefore, may apply to the case of offshoring, but more work is needed to better define the specific upsetting effects of offshoring on knowledge workers and organizations.

Global software development: Exploring socialization and face-to-face meetings in distributed strategic projects

Socialization is one means through which globally distributed teams (GDTs) can improve collaboration. However, harnessing socializing processes to support globally distributed collaboration is not easy. In particular, infrequent and limited face-to-face (F2F) contact between remote counterparts might result in difficulties in sharing norms, attitudes and behaviours. In this paper we seek to understand how dispersed teams create socialization in globally distributed settings. Based on data collected at SAP, LeCroy and Baan we conclude that, while F2F meetings are important in socializing remote counterparts, other activities and processes employed before and after F2F meetings are no less important. In particular, the paper highlights the importance of re-socializing remote counterparts throughout a project lifecycle. Re-socializing means supporting the re-acquisition of behaviours, norms and attitudes that are necessary for participation in an organization. We offer a framework in which three phases of creating, maintaining and renewing socialization in GDTs are discussed. The paper concludes by offering managers some guidelines concerning socialization in GDTs.

Essential communication practices for Extreme Programming in a global software development team

We conducted an industrial case study of a distributed team in the USA and the Czech Republic that used Extreme Programming. Our goal was to understand how this globally-distributed team created a successful project in a new problem domain using a methodology that is dependent on informal, face-to-face communication. We collected quantitative and qualitative data and used grounded theory to identify four key factors for communication in globally-distributed XP teams working within a new problem domain. Our study suggests that, if these critical enabling factors are addressed, methodologies dependent on informal communication can be used on global software development projects.