Given the increasing importance of globally distributed software development
(GDSD) over the last decade, it is surprising that empirical research in this
area is still in the very early stage. The few existing suggest that
traditional coordination and control mechanisms can be effective for these
projects only with support from appropriate information technology. However,
at present, little is known about the success of current Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) support in the context of GDSD projects.
Therefore, the main question this research addresses is what ICT-based support
is appropriate for globally distributed software development projects? The
objectives of this research are to elicit and develop the functional
requirements for ICT support for GDSD projects, to analyze the gap between
existing tools and these requirements, and to develop an Internet-based
integrated architecture of tools that would fill these gaps
