Communication tools for distributed software development teams

Abstract

This paper examines communication tools for software development and data management teams who are distributed geographically. Using a case study approach, we describe collaboration processes used by RTI International's (RTI's) application programming teams for three projects. Techniques range from simple conference calls and email through webcasts, collaboration websites and remote server control. These tools allow teams to work together to produce software and data products in spite of differences in locations, time zones and network access. The qualitative findings are relevant to increased globalization, outsourcing and telecommuting in the software development workforce.

Virtual R&D Teams: A New Model for Product Development

“…Virtual teams are technology-mediated groups of people from different disciplines which work on common tasks (Nader Ale Ebrahim, Ahmed, Abdul Rashid, Dekker, Rutte, & Van den Berg, 2008). Hence, the way the technology is implemented seems to make virtual team outcomes more or less likely (A. H. Anderson, McEwan, Bal, & Carletta, 2007 (Nader Ale Ebrahim, Ahmed, & Taha, 2009b;Thissen et al, 2007) 11 Do not install engineering software (get service through web browser) (Coleman & Levine, 2008;Kotelnikov, 2007;Shumarova, 2009) 12 Access service from any computer (in Network) (Shumarova, 2009;Thissen et al, 2007) 13 Standard phone service and hybrid services (Nader Ale Ebrahim et al, 2009d;Thissen et al, 2007) 14 Access shared files anytime, from any computer (Lee-Kelley & Sankey, 2008) 15 Web database (Nader Ale Ebrahim et al, 2009d;Coleman & Levine, 2008;Zemliansky & Amant, 2008) 16 Provide instant collaboration (Coleman & Levine, 2008;Thissen et al, 2007) 17 Software as a service (eliminating the need to install and run the application on the own computer) (Coleman & Levine, 2008;Thissen et al, 2007) 18 Virtual research centre for product development (Zemliansky & Amant, 2008) 19 Can be integrated/compatible with other tools and systems (Coleman & Levine, 2008;Kotelnikov, 2007) Virtual R&D Teams: A New Model for Product Development…”

“…(Leenders et al, 2003) 3 Making business together (Jain & Sobek, 2006) 4 Reduce travelling time and cost (Bergiel, Bergiel, & Balsmeier, 2008;Wayne F. Cascio, 2000;M. A. Fuller, Hardin, & Davison, 2006;Hardin, Fuller, & Davison, 2007) 5 Reduce the number of working hours need to solve the task (Gassmann & Von Zedtwitz, 2003b;Johnson et al, 2001;Precup, O'Sullivan, Cormican, & Dooley, 2006) 6 Collaborative solutions (Coleman & Levine, 2008;Thissen et al, 2007) 7 Facilitates data collection in NPD project (Leenders et al, 2003) 8 Interact with customers for gathering new product features (Andersen & Drejer, 2009;Daoudi, 2010) Provide quantity answer (Zemliansky & Amant, 2008) 10 Generate an easy interpretable answer (Corso, Martini, Pellegrini, Massa, & Testa, 2006;Zemliansky & Amant, 2008) 11 Ease of generating reports (Kirkman et al, 2002) 12 Ease of data entry (Corso et al, 2006;Thissen et al, 2007;Zemliansky & Amant, 2008) 13 Ability to accommodate multiple users (Wayne F. Cascio, 2000;Gaudes, Hamilton-Bogart, Marsh, & Robinson, 2007;Kratzer, Leenders, & Engelen, 2005),…”

A Canvas for Establishing Global Software Development Collaborations

“…Collaboration sites are often located at remote places, so tools often provide the only way for software development teams to get connected. Thus a variety of di↵erent communication tools such as web meetings, phones, e-mails and mailing lists, chats, file transfer tools, groupware and shared services tools should be provided by organizations [28,37,42].…”

“…This promises to create the "organizational memory", shared collective understanding of the domain knowledge, technology and business needs. It accumulates the experience of a collaboration in a specific organizational context and might help collaboration sites to learn and improve their way of working together [28,37,42].…”

“…A rich set of groupware tools is expected to help reduce the impact of distance in global software development, to increase the frequency and ease the communication between sites, to lessen coordination e↵orts, and to provide equal accessibility to all project-related artefacts. A compatible infrastructure at all collaboration locations is highly important for conducting the distributed development process e↵ectively and e ciently [7,28].…”