Collaborative design : managing task interdependencies and multiple perspectives

This paper focuses on two characteristics of collaborative design with respect to cooperative work: the importance of work interdependencies linked to the nature of design problems; and the fundamental function of design cooperative work arrangement which is the confrontation and combination of perspectives. These two intrinsic characteristics of the design work stress specific cooperative processes: coordination processes in order to manage task interdependencies, establishment of common ground and negotiation mechanisms in order to manage the integration of multiple perspectives in design

Project Quality of Offshore Virtual Teams Engaged in Software Requirements Analysis: An Exploratory Comparative Study

The off-shore software development companies in countries such as India use a global delivery model in which initial requirement analysis phase of software projects get executed at client locations to leverage frequent and deep interaction between user and developer teams. Subsequent phases such as design, coding and testing are completed at off-shore locations. Emerging trends indicate an increasing interest in off-shoring even requirements analysis phase using computer mediated communication. We conducted an exploratory research study involving students from Management Development Institute (MDI), India and Marquette University (MU), USA to determine quality of such off-shored requirements analysis projects. Our findings suggest that project quality of teams engaged in pure off-shore mode is comparable to that of teams engaged in collocated mode. However, the effect of controls such as user project monitoring on the quality of off-shored projects needs to be studied further

Effective Virtual Teams for New Product Development

At present, the existing literature shows that the factors which influence the effectiveness of virtual teams for new product development are still ambiguous. To address this problem, a research design was developed, which includes detailed literature review, preliminary model and field survey. From literature review, the factors which influence the effectiveness of virtual teams are identified and these factors are modified using a field survey. The relationship between knowledge workers (people), process and technology in virtual teams is explored in this study. The results of the study suggest that technology and process are tightly correlated and need to be considered early in virtual teams. The use of software as a service, web solution, report generator and tracking system should be incorporated for effectiveness virtual teams

Cultural diversity and information and communication technology impacts on global virtual teams: An exploratory study.

Modern organizations face many significant challenges because of turbulent environments and a competitive global economy. Among these challenges are the use of information and communication technology (ICT), a multicultural workforce, and organizational designs that involve global virtual teams. Ad hoc teams create both opportunities and challenges for organizations and many organizations are trying to understand how the virtual environment affects team effectiveness. Our exploratory study focused on the effects of cultural diversity and ICT on team effectiveness. Interviews with 41 team members from nine countries employed by a Fortune 500 corporation were analyzed. Results suggested that cultural diversity had a positive influence on decision‐making and a negative influence on communication. ICT mitigated the negative impact on intercultural communication and supported the positive impact on decision making. Effective technologies for intercultural communication included e‐mail, teleconferencing combined with e‐Meetings, and team rooms. Cultural diversity influenced selection of the communication media

Coordination in Business Process Offshoring

We investigate coordination strategies in the remote delivery of business services (i.e. Business Process Offshoring). We analyze 126 surveys of offshored processes to understand both the sources of difficulty in the remote delivery of services as well as how organizations overcome these difficulties. We find that interdependence between offshored and onshore processes can lower offshore process performance. Investment in coordination mechanisms such as modularity, ongoing communication and generating common ground across locations ameliorate the performance impact of interdependence. In particular, we are able to show that building common ground – knowledge that is shared and known to be shared- across locations is a coordination mechanism that is distinct from building communication channels or modularising processes. Our results also suggest the firms may be investing less in common ground than they should.Coordination; offshoring; modularity; common ground; interdependence

The Mirroring Hypothesis: Theory, Evidence and Exceptions

The mirroring hypothesis predicts that the organizational patterns of a development project (e.g. communication links, geographic collocation, team and firm co-membership) will correspond to the technical patterns of dependency in the system under development. Scholars in a range of disciplines have argued that mirroring is either necessary or a highly desirable feature of development projects, but evidence pertaining to the hypothesis is widely scattered across fields, research sites, and methodologies. In this paper, we formally define the mirroring hypothesis and review 102 empirical studies spanning three levels of organization: within a single firm, across firms, and in open community-based development projects. The hypothesis was supported in 69% of the cases. Support for the hypothesis was strongest in the within-firm sample, less strong in the across-firm sample, and relatively weak in the open collaborative sample. Based on a detailed analysis of the cases in which the mirroring hypothesis was not supported, we introduce the concept of actionable transparency as a means of achieving coordination without mirroring. We present examples from practice and describe the more complex organizational patterns that emerge when actionable transparency allows designers to 'break the mirror.'Modularity, innovation, product and process development, organization design, design structure, organizational structure, organizational ties

Agile methods influence on communication in globally distributed it project teams

Agile methods are increasingly used by companies. Although these methods were initially developed for collocated teams, the number of their successful implementation in globally distributed IT project teams is growing. Despite the considerable research on distributed teams and agile methods, little is known about how they influence communication in globally distributed IT project teams. The study aims at examining the relationship between agile methods and communication in such teams. The research question of the study is dedicated to the exploration of agile methods influence on communication in globally distributed IT project teams. Data collection was done with the help of such qualitative research method as a case study in form of ten semi-structured Skype interviews. The results showed that the use of agile methods has a mixed impact on communication in globally distributed IT project teams. On one hand, agile methods facilitate informal communication among team members. However, the use of agile methods may further limit this informal communication, which is ICT mediated. At the same time, agile methods do not offer adequate tools for effective formal communication.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

World-wide work stress multi-case study of the stress-coping process in distributed work

The changing world of work is increasing demands on workers through greater need for flexibility in global collaboration. Many organizations utilize distributed teams in which a group of people with a common purpose carry out interdependent tasks across locations and time, using technology to communicate more than face-to-face meetings. Prior literature on distributed teams shows that distributed work creates several challenges for team members' well-being, but our knowledge about the unique stressors that arise from these new work settings is limited and calls for further investigation. This multiple-case study uses a qualitative research approach to study context-specific job stressors that contribute to employees' psychological strain, and the coping mechanisms employees use to alleviate that strain. Ninety-seven team leaders and members from ten distributed real-life work teams were interviewed. The semi-structured interview data was analyzed qualitatively on team and individual levels. Results reveal the unique stressors and coping mechanisms of distributed work and model their relations to psychological strain. Geographic distance, electronic dependence and cultural diversity hinder the information flow and task coordination in distributed teams, creating stress-evoking ambiguity and uncertainty for team members. Not only these job stressors but also some of the strategies used to cope with them contribute to overload and strain. In particular, certain team-level coping strategies, such as frequent traveling to face-to-face meetings, prolonged work hours due to synchronous computer-mediated communication, and email overload create secondary sources of work overload when people use them continuously to manage uncertainty and ambiguity in distributed collaboration. To cope with the team-level coping strategies, team members rely heavily on individual coping resources, because spatial and temporal distance hinder the mobilization of social resources related to emotional, instrumental and informational social support. This dissertation suggests that the team-level coping strategies that are effective in managing certain job demands may, however, create other stressors and overload for individuals. Experienced workers, who have good self-management skills, may succeed in coping with these secondary sources of strain by prioritizing and setting clear limits for workload. Less experienced workers may feel more overloaded and need more social support from their leaders and teammates. As a practical implication, this dissertation suggests that the self-management skills in coping, employees' efforts in setting clear limits and prioritizing tasks should be better supported by organizations

Team Learning in Technology-Mediated Distributed Teams

This study examines technological, educational/learning, and social affordances associated with the facilitation of projectbased learning and problem solving in technology-mediated distributed teams. An empirical interpretive research approach using direct observation is used to interpret, evaluate and rate observable manifested behaviors and qualitative content (i.e. discussions) associated with project-based team learning. The theory of affordances and social impact theory are integrated to develop a conceptual model that asserts that collaboration mode (collocated vs. non-collocated and videoconferencing supported) will dictate the quality of information exchange, progressive elaboration of ideas, and the social processes that influence team learning. Team learning is then suggested to yield better productivity and higher perceived interaction quality. Results showed that collaboration mode can impact team information exchange and interpretation and ultimately task outcomes. Further, collaboration mode can also create a social structure that influences the capacity for a team to maintain a mutual supportive and positive climate needed for successful project-based task outcomes. The results offer some extended insights into the technology-mediated collaborative learning process among students in a higher education context as well as in organizational settings. Theoretical, methodological and practical implications of the study are discussed