Globally distributed technology projects thrive on experience working together apart: Impacts of team balance, task balance, and task heterogeneity

Abstract

Enabling shared experiences could be key to managing technology projects successfully. The advantages gained from the experience of working together can be complemented, but also offset, by common aspects of technology projects—like the dispersion of team members and the integration of heterogeneous tasks across global sites. This study develops and tests a conceptual framework that scrutinizes the impact of team familiarity and task allocation challenges. It identifies three elements of task allocation in technology projects that affect the familiarization process: (i) team (im)balance, (ii) task (im)balance, and (iii) task heterogeneity. An examination of 27,948 software tasks in six projects involving teams working apart on heterogeneous and dispersed tasks in the Netherlands and India shows that the experience of working together apart reduces the average cost of software tasks. This positive effect is enhanced by task heterogeneity and team balance, despite being hampered by task balance. These findings shed new light on task allocation challenges in cross‐organizational technology projects distributed over the world.

We can work it out: A multilevel examination of relationships among group and individual technology workarounds, and performance

“…To accommodate the potential endogeneity bias, we used an instrumental‐free method using the Gaussian Copula approach (Park & Gupta, 2012). Consistent with prior studies (Alblas, 2022; Salvador et al, 2021), we first conducted a Shapiro–Wilk test to assess whether the endogenous regressor (e.g., group technology workarounds) is non‐normally distributed. The results of this test indicated that the endogenous regressor was non‐normally distributed ( W = 0.938, p < .001).…”

“…Although various task characteristics have been investigated in the extant OM literature (Alblas, 2022; Pagell & LePine, 2002), we focus on task nonroutineness because it has a high level of theoretical and practical relevance. First, task nonroutineness includes task (un)analyzability and variety, reflecting the extent to which the tasks are not routine or understandable (Majchrzak et al, 2005; Perrow, 1967).…”

Impact of big data analytics in project success: Mediating role of intellectual capital and knowledge sharing

“…The literature above suggests that BDA can impact KS (Sleep et al, 2023) which can influence PS (Alblas, 2022). Hence, the following hypothesis is proposed: H7: KS mediates the relationship between BDA and PS.…”

“…Projects frequently involve complex tasks requiring various skills and knowledge; effective knowledge sharing can help ensure that all participants can access the information and resources they need to complete and provide the PS (Ahlfänger et al, 2022). By exchanging knowledge, team members can avoid duplicating efforts, gain insight from one another's experiences, and work collaboratively to solve problems and surmount obstacles (Alblas, 2022). This can assist in enhancing work quality and decreasing errors and increasing the project's success.…”