Understanding a lack of trust in Global Software Teams: a multiple‐case study

Abstract

Many organizations have turned towards globally distributed software development (GSD) in their quest for cheap, higher‐quality software that has a short development cycle. However, this kind of development has often been reported as being problematic and complex to manage. There are indications that trust is a fundamental factor in determining the success or failure of GSD projects. This article studies the key factors that cause a lack of trust and the effect of lacking trust and present data from four projects in which problems with trust were experienced. We found the key factors to be poor socialization and socio‐cultural fit, increased monitoring, inconsistency and disparities in work practices, reduction of and unpredictability in communication; and a lack of face‐to‐face meetings, language skills, conflict handling, and cognitive‐based trust. The effect of lacking trust was a decrease in productivity, quality, information exchange and feedback, morale among the employees, and an increase in relationship conflicts. In addition, the employees tended to self‐protect, to prioritize individual goals over group goals, and to doubt negative feedback from the manager. Further, the managers increased monitoring, which reduced the level of trust even more. These findings have implications for software development managers and practitioners involved in GSD. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Knowledge Sharing in Distributed Agile Projects: Techniques, Strategies and Challenges

“…Due to frequent face-to-face interaction with product owners, onsite team members get more business and domain related information than offshore team members [49]. A lack of faceto-face meetings and poor socialization also causes a lack of trust among distributed team members [30]. Rotation between on-site and distributed team members promotes the sharing of business and domain related knowledge across the teams.…”

Yeni Ürün Geliştirme Takımlarında Güven ve Takım Öğrenmesi

“…Diğer taraftan güven eksikliği, doğrudan veya dolaylı olarak organizasyonların performansını ve üyelerin davranışsal sonuçlarını etkileyen bir dizi olumsuz faktörlerle ilişkilidir. Moe ve Šmite (2008)'in vaka çalışmaları; güven eksikliğinin sosyalleşmenin ve sosyo-kültürel uyumun azalmasına, tutarsızlığa ve uygulamalarda farklılıklara ve takımda diğer üyelerin iyi niyetlerine ilişkin şüphelere neden olduğunu göstermektedir.…”

New Forms of Work in the Light of Globalization in Software Development

“…Moe and Smite (2008) report the results of a multi-case study conducted in the same organization as described in this book. The study points out that although remote team members ought to form a joint team they often consider distribution as team separator that hinders distributed members to form a joint team.…”

“…Thus global project managers often feel insecure and tend to overly supervise the remote team members. However, lack of trust and direct supervision as a result of this insecurity is found to have a negative effect on team performance (Moe et al, 2008).…”

“…Issues that are easily discussed and resolved at a cup of coffee in the corporate kitchen often hang in inbox for several days. Poor socialization, lack of frequent feedback, and unpredictability in communication often leads to lacking trust among the team members (Moe et al, 2008). Empirical study of speed and communication in globally distributed software development suggests that distributed work items appear to take about 2.5 times as long to complete as similar items where all the work is colocated due to interdependencies between the people involved in the project (Herbsleb et al, 2003).…”