Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1.
Key Risks for using coordinating mechanisms in GSD
Standardization
Direct Supervision
Mutual Adjustment
Temporal
Distance
•
Management of project
artifacts may be subject
to delays [15]
•
Misunderstanding of
different work processes
[16]
•
Reduced synchronous
communication [3, 15]
•
Coordination
complexity/breakdown
[11,15- 16]
•
Lack of project visibility
[16]
•
Reduced overlap
times [11,15]
•
Miscommunication,
confusion and
delays [2-3,16,19-20]
•
Lack of shared under-
standing, reduced trust
[16, 18]
•
Lack of standardization
of: definitions, common
tools, norms, work
process and practices
[17]
Geographic
Distance
•
Lack of standard
artefacts [17]
•
Reduced trust because
of: disparity in work
practices, outputs, skills
and norms [20]
•
Difficulty in conveying
vision and strategy [15]
•
Management
coordination overhead
[3,11,18]
•
Management
dependency on
ICT/tools [15]
•
Reduced informal
contact due to
diffculties of face to
face meeting [15]
•
Lack of group
awareness [3, 17,19]
•
Conflicts due to a lack
of common coding,
tools, work process and
norms, and development
practice standards [18]
•
Communication
dependency on ICT
tools [15]
Socio-
cultural
Distance
•
Misinterpretations of
different project
standards [9, 12]
•
Different expectations
regarding leadership
practices [11,20]
•
Misunderstandings,
miscommunication,
confusion and silence
[15]
•
Task conflicts [7]
•
Problems with
management due to
differing frames of
reference [11]
•
Challenges in creating
mutual understanding
[21]
•
Lack of shared
understanding [9]
•
Problems with project
managers in adapting to
distributed team norms
and work culture [9]
•
Reduced trust [22,23]
4 Research Methodology
In this section, we report on the findings of an exploratory industry-based case study
that used agile practices in a globally distributed project. The case study is considered
a robust research method with a range of appropriate data collection approaches when
a holistic in-depth investigation of a social phenomenon in its real life context is re-
quired [24]. To carry out our case study we carefully followed the guidelines sug-
gested in [27]. In this research, we do not provide formal hypothesis testing or draw
any general conclusions as GSD has many forms depending on project contextual
factors (for example: size, collaboration modes, number of distributed sites etc.).
However, in our case study, we consider the research question, “how can the effective
use of agile practices reduce coordination risks in GSD?” Thus the finding of this
single case study is expected to provide some useful insights into the effectiveness of
agile practices to reduce GSD coordination risks.
