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The development of information systems has always been and remains a volatile environment. Practitioners and researchers within the field of information systems development (ISD) have put forward a number of different ideas over the past thirty years to better monitor and control the process. The use of traditional ISD methods has been one such idea that has not only achieved widespread application but has garnered many criticisms regarding its application. This study seeks to investigate whether these criticisms are supported in terms of how present day organizations utilize traditional ISD methods in light of the increased diversity and sophistication of ISD projects. The findings of the study indicate that whilst methods are considered an integral part of the majority of development projects, they cannot be adopted without a significant amount of modification to suit individual development projects. In addition, traditional ISD methods were considered of limited use within the present ISD environment.

The advent of globalisation has led to the growing use of global virtual teams (GVT) for software development. The use of such teams enables organisations to operate across national, economic and social, and cultural boundaries; this new form of teamwork presents challenges for traditional coordination mechanisms. Hence, a range of new operational problems for the coordination of software development teams have emerged due to the nature of virtual work: these are related to issues of geographical distance, language differences, time zone(s) differences, cultural differences, and trust. This paper applies a theoretical model drawn from prior research to explore the coordination mechanisms employed by a global virtual software development team in a major multi-national telecommunications organisation. The study analyses the impact that the aforementioned issues have on the effectiveness of project team coordination mechanisms and then develops a refined conceptual model to guide future research on global virtual software development teams. The findings also inform practice on the problems encountered in ensuring the effective coordination of such teams.

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