Conceptualizing the Awareness of Collaboration: A Qualitative Study of a Global Virtual Team

Innovative organizations are increasing their use of distributed teamwork, but there are several difficulties in reaching shared understanding between the team members in these settings. A lack of awareness of other team members’ working processes is one of the drawbacks that a virtual team may face while attempting to collaborate on a shared task. In this study virtual teamwork was supported with a specific working model. The aim was to investigate virtual team members’ awareness of collaboration. One global team (N=19) within a single organization worked as a distributed team in a shared web-based workspace for three months. The data were gathered by means of questionnaires, log-files of the shared virtual workspace and collected company documents in order to find out how team members perceive their collaboration. Based on qualitative data analysis, three different aspects of collaboration awareness were identified: an awareness of the possibility for collaboration, an awareness of the aims of collaboration, and an awareness of the process of collaboration. The results presented in this paper give guidelines for discussing what the awareness of collaboration means in the context of distributed collaboration.     

Leader delegation in global software teams: occurrence and effects

Global teams are an important work structure in software development projects. Managing such complex global software projects presents many challenges to traditional leadership wisdom, in particular, how, why and when the leaders should delegate responsibility and authority. Delegation is considered an important leadership component to motivate and grow subordinates. Cultural differences, skill level disparity and potential competition between different software development sites creates a management context which is much different from where traditional leadership theories were developed. This study investigates leader delegation behaviors in global software teams and explores the reasons and impact of delegation strategies on global team performance. Semi-structured interviews and a survey was used to collect data from global software team managers and members from four countries of a Fortune 100 IT service company. The results of this study include in-depth analysis of hows and whys of leader delegation in global teams and a theoretical model for analyzing global team leader delegation occurrence and effects.     

Perceived enablers of 3D virtual environments for virtual team learning and innovation

Virtual teams consist of geographically distributed employees working with a common goal using mostly technology for communication and collaboration. Virtual teams face a number of challenges, discussed in the literature in terms of communication through technology, difficulty in building trust, conveying social cues, and creating awareness, as well as cultural differences. These challenges impact collaboration, but also learning and innovation. This research focuses on how a social medium, the 3D virtual environment, is perceived to enable learning and innovation in virtual teams. We study this through a qualitative study based on interviews of distributed work managers’ perception of VEs. The major findings are that VEs are perceived to create collaborative learning atmospheres for virtual teams in terms of enabling engagement, a shared context awareness, and support in social network building. Another finding is that VEs are perceived to enable team learning, knowledge development, and collaboration through persistence of content, information sharing, learning through role-plays and simulations, and visualization. Furthermore, VEs enable the development of co-created content as well as new ways of working in virtual teams.     

Examining effective technology project leadership traits and behaviors

Effective project team leadership theory is explored from the perspective of leader traits, skills, roles, and behaviors. Existing leadership traits and behaviors are examined from organization science empirical studies, they are differentiated from management functions, and the gap between extant theory and the project management domain is highlighted through this research. Leadership principles are examined from actual organizational work settings, specifically dynamic projects, with a view to discovering what actually happens as compared with espoused theory. The underlying research question is whether these theories hold up and can be effectively integrated to the project management domain. The significance of leadership behavior differences at the project and organizational levels is grounded on empirical evidence. The reflection of integrated organizational science and project leadership theory using qualitative and quantitative research methods contributes to the body of knowledge by sharing and learning in professional and academic communities of practice.     

Assessing the relative contribution of the facets of agility to distributed systems development success: an Analytic Hierarchy Process approach

Recent studies have sought to identify different types/facets of agility that can potentially contribute to distributed Information Systems Development (ISD) project success. However, prior research has not attempted to assess the relative importance of the various types of agility with respect to different ISD success measures. We believe that such an assessment is critical, since this information can enable organizations to direct scarce organizational resources to the types of agility that are most relevant. To this end, we use the Analytic Hierarchy Process to unearth, from the perspectives of two stakeholder groups of distributed software development projects, managers, and technical staff members, as to which agility facets facilitate (and to what degree) on-time completion of projects and effective collaboration in distributed ISD teams. Furthermore, noting that there is a need for an overall set of prioritized agility facets (by integrating managerial and technically oriented perspectives), we present three ways to aggregate the preferences of the two groups.     

Implications of space and time for distributed work: an interpretive study of US–Norwegian systems development teams

In this paper, utilizing the often taken-for-granted notions of space and time, we develop an understanding of how collaboration is possible among virtual team-members spread across the globe. We do so by interpretively examining the actual experiences and work practices of virtual team-members located in the US & Norway, engaged in information systems development (ISD) projects. We identify a number of collaboration inhibitors, along with strategies used by team-members to address the challenges posed by the mismatch in time zones and the lack of physical proximity.     

Intellectual capital and team resilience capability of information system development project teams

Adversities are inherent in the information system development (ISD) process and often put projects to a halt. However, it is unclear what capabilities the team needs to resist and bounce back from adverse events. The purpose of this study is to propose that team resilience capability (TRC), containing affective, cognitive, and behavioral factors is vital for effective project performance. Further, by adopting the conservation of resource perspective, we theorize that intellectual capital, including human capital, technology capital, and political capital fosters TRC. Survey data collected from 149 ISD project teams confirmed our ideas that TRC is strongly tied with project performance and is more affected by human capital, followed by political capital and technology capital.     

Efficient algorithms for team formation with a leader in social networks

Given a project with a set of required skills, it is an important and challenging problem of find a team of experts that have not only the required skill set but also the minimal communication cost. Furthermore, in view of the benefits of greater leaders, prior work presented the team formation problem with a leader where the leader is responsible for coordinating and managing the project. To find the best leader and the corresponding team, the prior work exhaustively evaluates each candidate and the associated team, incurring substantial computational cost. In this paper, we propose two efficient algorithms, namely the BCPruning algorithm and the SSPruning algorithm, to accelerate the discovery of the best leader and the corresponding team by reducing the search space of team formation for candidates. The BCPruning algorithm aims at selecting better initial leader candidates to obtain lower communication cost, enabling effective candidate pruning. On the other hand, the SSPruning algorithm allows each leader candidate to have a lower bound on the communication cost, leading some candidates to be safely pruned without any computation. Besides, the SSPruning algorithm exploits the exchanged information among experts to aid initial candidate selection as well as team member search. For performance evaluation, we conduct experiments using a real dataset. The experimental results show that the proposed BCPruning and SSPruning algorithms are respectively 1.42–1.68 and 2.64–3.25 times faster than the prior work. Moreover, the results indicate that the proposed algorithms are more scalable than the prior work.     

Developer Role Evolution in Open Source Software Ecosystem: An Explanatory Study on GNOME

An open source software (OSS) ecosystem refers to an OSS development community composed of many software projects and developers contributing to these projects. The projects and developers co-evolve in an ecosystem. To keep healthy evolution of such OSS ecosystems, there is a need of attracting and retaining developers, particularly project leaders and core developers who have major impact on the project and the whole team. Therefore, it is important to figure out the factors that influence developers’ chance to evolve into project leaders and core developers. To identify such factors, we conducted a case study on the GNOME ecosystem. First, we collected indicators reflecting developers’ subjective willingness to contribute to the project and the project environment that they stay in. Second, we calculated such indicators based on the GNOME dataset. Then, we fitted logistic regression models by taking as independent variables the resulting indicators after eliminating the most collinear ones, and taking as a dependent variable the future developer role (the core developer or project leader). The results showed that part of such indicators (e.g., the total number of projects that a developer joined) of subjective willingness and project environment significantly influenced the developers’ chance to evolve into core developers and project leaders. With different validation methods, our obtained model performs well on predicting developmental core developers, resulting in stable prediction performance (0.770, F-value).     

Managing knowledge on communication and information flow in global software projects

Communication is a key success factor of distributed software projects. Poor communication has been identified as a main obstacle to successful collaboration. Global projects are especially endangered by information gaps between collaborating sites. Different communication styles, technical equipment, and missing awareness of each other can cause severe problems. Knowledge about actual and desired channels, paths, and modes of communication is required for improving communication in a globally distributed project. However, many project participants know little about communication and information flow in their projects. In this contribution, we focus on knowledge about communication and information flow. It is acquired by modelling on‐going and desired flows of information, including documented and non‐documented channels of information flow. We analyzed a distributed software project from the information flow perspective. Based on the findings, we developed specific techniques to improve information flow in distributed software development according to the FLOW Method. In a second distributed project, we evaluated one of the techniques. We found the FLOW mapping technique to be suitable for effectively spreading knowledge about communication and information flow in global software projects.     

Distributed leadership in the development of a knowledge sharing system

This paper studies leadership dynamics in the development of a knowledge sharing system. We apply the concept of distributed leadership, examining how leadership roles are distributed across different individuals in the organisation during developing and implementing a knowledge sharing system. The results of a case study demonstrate that the leadership was fulfilled by the interdependent and emergent roles played by several individuals: the spearheading and coordinating roles of a knowledgeable and persistent project leader, the supporting and steering roles carried by a group of perceptive and collaboration-inclined executives, and the knowledge sharing and momentum driving roles performed by knowledge champions. Each of these leadership influences was indispensable. None of the leaders could have accomplished this task individually, without the active involvement of the other types of leaders. This research makes its contribution to the understanding of the emergence and dynamics of distributed leadership in the information system environment, and demonstrates the importance of a full awareness of distributed leadership as tasks are carried out in developing a knowledge sharing system.     

Transforming an industry through information technology

A history project to explore where, how, and why information technology has transformed an entire industry is described. Two industries have been covered: airlines and banking. Key findings have integrated two learning processes: how to change the organization's structure, and how to learn the new technology. A model of the process for reaching a dominant design has been established. A team of computer professionals with experience in the 1950s and beyond is helping to carry out the historical research. The findings show how strategies and structures interrelate to include the impact of systems on strategies and structures. This project emphasizes how innovative management uses technology     

Enhancing development team flexibility in IS projects

Information system development projects face tremendous challenges because of business changes and technology changes. Research has shown that software team flexibility has a positive effect on project outcomes, but specific requirements for enhancing flexibility are lacking. Drawing from the input-mediator-outcome (IMO) team effectiveness framework, this research investigates the contextual inputs and team processes that lead to development team flexibility and how well team flexibility improves project outcomes. A survey was developed to consider a model derived from the IMO framework. One hundred fourteen members of information systems development project teams in China responded to the survey. Partial least squares analysis was used served to analyze the data. Results indicate that a participatory culture and cooperative norms are an effective foundation for improving required processes that include project coordination of the project and knowledge sharing activities. In turn, the improved process performance extends responses to changes in technology and the business climate. The improved flexibility in meeting change is predictive of outcomes related to project performance and quality of the final product.     

Walking the Tightrope: The Balancing Acts of a Large e-Research Project

Although e-Research has received much attention and acclaim in recent years, the realities of distributed collaboration still challenge even the most well-planned endeavors. This case study of an e-Research project examines the ‚balancing acts’ associated with multidisciplinary, geographically distributed, large-scale research and development work. After briefly describing the history and organizational design of this information technology and atmospheric science research project, I identify five paradoxical challenges that cannot be resolved: research versus development, harmony versus conflict, consensus versus top-down decision making, frequency and modes of communication, and fast versus slow pacing. Although collaboration and communication technologies supported the project’s management and organization, most of the complexities faced by the team were not technological in nature. From the five paradoxical challenges associated with the project, I distill three cross-cutting issues that could be relevant to other e-Research projects of this magnitude: satisfying the multiple needs of a multidisciplinary project, managing information, and engaging all participants. I identify the practical implications of these challenges and issues, specifically that organizational and low-tech solutions – not the introduction of more sophisticated technology tools – are needed to solve these challenges and to better streamline coordination.     

After the curtain was pulled away [software development projects]

Before the curtain was pulled away, the Wizard of Oz was a booming, angry voice. After it was pulled away, the Wizard was a kind, sympathetic, elderly statesman who used his wisdom and position to recognize and reward the contributions of individual team members, honor their collective accomplishments and join with the team leader in a partnership to accomplish the team's goal. The Wizard's role was to identify problems and collective solutions, find out what was important to the project and the individuals, affirm and recognize the qualities necessary for success, inspire the team to even greater strength and accomplishment, and solidify their commitment to their vision and goals. The elements and people essential to project success have changed over the last few years. Not every project is perfect, with clearly defined requirements and goals. The author describes how wizards, the new team leaders, work with the chaos of real life to pull together a success     

External social capital and information systems development team flexibility

Context

ISD research based on the socio-technical perspective suggests that two sources of socio-technical change have a bearing on the performance of information systems development (ISD) projects: business requirements and development technology. To enhance project effectiveness, ISD teams need to enhance their flexibility in the face of the constant changes taking place from business and technical environments in which they operate. Flexibility is conceptualized as an outcome of capability development through constantly integrating and reconfiguring available resources within and outside of the organization where the team is embedded.

Objective

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between a team’s external social capital and team flexibility. More specifically, based on social capital theory, this study argues that external social capital leads to IS team flexibility, which in turn contributes to the successful project performance.

Method

A survey design was selected to collect data and test the proposed model. A snowballing strategy was employed to collect data. 118 information systems developers participated in the survey and the model was analyzed using partial least squares regression. Results: The findings show that, in general, the ISD teams’ external social capital do contribute to the team’s response to changes. However, they exhibit unique impacts on ISD team flexibility respectively.

Results

The findings show that, in general, the ISD teams’ external social capital does contribute to the team’s response to changes. However, they exhibit unique impacts on ISD team flexibility respectively.

Conclusion

The various external social capitals have distinctive effects on a team’s flexibility. Specifically, horizontal relationships are positively associated with both business and technology flexibility. Vertical relationships are positively associated with business flexibility and market relationships technology flexibility. ISD managers should establish robust relationships with its high-ups, other lateral units, and third parties outside in the market. They also need to be more adaptive to the increasingly volatile socio-technical environment, and proactively search, exploit, upgrade, and integrate resources that are essential to the development of system development team flexibility.     

Action Planning for New Product Development Projects

Two empirical studies are presented to show how experienced project leaders execute New Product Development (NPD) projects. In the first study we interviewed project leaders from four different design firms. We discovered that inside realistic NPD projects the NPD activities seldom occur in the same order as they are described in the NPD literature. Some activities are omitted, some activities are run in parallel and some even have a seemingly illogical timing. The reasons for these ‘strange’ patterns are usually project‐specific. The NPD project leaders distinguish four types of NPD projects. On the one hand, familiar (client well known and/or standard technology and/or re‐design) or non‐familiar projects (new client and/or new technology and/or innovative design), and on the other hand, the complexity of the product (simple versus complex), and they plan their NPD projects differently according to those four types. For instance, within simple and familiar projects they omit more NPD activities than in projects with a more complex and new nature. In the second empirical study we did a matched pairing study (finding NPD projects which would match each of the four types). This time we interviewed experienced project leaders from different companies, because they are probably more familiar with only one type of NPD project. We found a minimal and a ‘regular’ NPD process. Projects on new products (the non‐familiar type) contain the most activities in the total project. Complex projects execute more activities in the first stages, and also different activities than in non‐complex projects. We also found that NPD project leaders adapt an opportunistic attitude towards carrying out activities in parallel in order to gain time.     

A socio-technical approach to improving the systems development process

Research on improving the systems development processes has primarily focused on mechanisms such as tools, software development methodologies, knowledge sharing and process capabilities. This research has yielded considerable insights into improving the systems development process, but the large majority of information systems development projects still continue to be over budget, late, and ineffective in meeting user needs. Together with the advent of software development moving offshore, or consisting of offshore team members, a more holistic approach is appropriate. Approached from a socio-technical perspective the software development process is viewed as a process embedded in a social and a technical subsystem. Drawing upon socio-technical work design principles, this paper suggests how capabilities of the development process can be improved. Data collected from a survey of software development practices in organizations indicates that organizations at different levels of process capabilities differ in work system characteristics as well as process performance. For example, the use of multi-skilled teams was found to be significantly related to the systems development process maturity level as well as significantly related to all the performance measures studied. This paper provides empirical support for the socio-technical approach and provides a theoretical foundation for designing software process initiatives in organizations.     

Action research in user-centred product development

Technological development and increased international competition have imposed a significant burden on the product development function of many companies. The growing complexity of products demands a larger product development team with people having various competencies. Simultaneously the importance of good quality, usability and customisation of products is growing, and many companies want to involve customers and users directly in the development work. Both the complexity and quality demand new ways of working that support collaboration between people with various competencies, interests and responsibilities both inside and outside the company. This paper reports experiences from using action research to introduce new user-centred work practices in two commercial product development projects. The interventions varied. In the first project it was found rewarding to engage customers and users in workshops based on participatory inquiry and collaborative design. The design process was iterative and the workshops took place several times involving concept through detailed design. In the second project, new design representations are introduced. The experiences highlight the importance of creating and reifying insights in design representations and using these to both support collaboration, and create continuity in the project. The paper ends with a discussion of scientific rigor in action research and what the new work practices imply for the development team.