Understanding technology use in global virtual teams: Research methodologies and methods

Abstract

Context: The globalisation of activities associated with software development and use has introduced many challenges in practice, and also (therefore) many for research. While the predominant approach to research in software engineering has followed a positivist science model, this approach may be sub-optimal when addressing problems with a dominant social or cultural dimension, such as those frequently encountered when studying work practices in a globally distributed team setting. The investigation of such a team reported in this paper provides one example of an alternative approach to research in a global context, through a longitudinal interpretive field study seeking to understand how global virtual teams mediated the use of technology. The study involved a large collective of faculty and support staff plus student members based in the geographically and temporally distant locations of New Zealand, the United States of America and Sweden. Objective: Our focus in this paper is on the conduct of research in the context of global software activities, and in particular, as applied to the actions and interactions of global virtual teams. We consider the appropriateness of various methodologies and methods in enabling such issues to be addressed. Method: We describe how we undertook a substantial field study of global virtual teams, and highlight how the adopted structuration theory, action research and grounded theory methodologies applied to the analysis of email data, enabled us to deliver effectively against our goals. Results: We believe that the approach taken suited a research context in which situated practices were occurring over time in a highly complex domain, ensuring that our results were both strongly grounded and relevant to practice. It has resulted in the generation of substantive theory and techniques that have been adapted and applied on a pilot basis in further field settings. Conclusion: We conclude that globally distributed teamwork presents a complex context which demands new research approaches, beyond the limited set customarily applied by software engineering researchers. We advocate experimenting with different research methodologies and methods so that we have a more rounded repertoire to address the most important and relevant issues in global software development research, with the forms of rigour that suit the chosen approach.

Advantages and disadvantages of international virtual project teams

“…Later, they began to be viewed as groups of interdependent people, sharing a common purpose and working towards realising this purpose across space, time, and organisation boundaries with the help of technology [Lipnack, Stamps, 2000;Shen, Lyytinen, Yoo, 2015]. The majority of researchers share a common point of view that can be found in their publications [Bell, Kozlowski, 2002;Chinowsky, Rojas, 2003;Hinds, Bailey, 2003;Breu, Hemingway, 2004;Hinds, Mortensen, 2005;Nader, Shamsuddin, Zahari, 2009;Huang, Kahai, Jestice, 2010;Clear, MacDonell, 2011].…”

“…This diversity can facilitate sharing and transferring knowledge [Pinjani, Palvia, 2013;Klitmoeller, Lauring, 2013;Alsharo, Gregg, Ramirez, 2016] and enhance creativity and innovative thinking that brings benefits at both the organisational and individual level. The unlimited availability of talents [Gibson et al, 2014] and the possibility to leverage knowledge and expertise gathered around the world cannot be overestimated [Clear, MacDonell, 2011]. It has to be remembered, however, that innovations will not occur automatically -this diversity needs to be properly managed and requires wise leadership supplemented by a trust-building strategy [Zhi-Ping et al, 2011;Germain, McGuire, 2014;Schiller et al, 2014].…”

Spreadsheets as Collaborative Technologies in Global Requirements Change Management

“…This may involve consciously designing the most effective role for spreadsheets as bridging mechanisms between technical and non-technical stakeholder groups in the wider CT repertoire. The activities of technology use mediation [32], such as establishment and reinforcement of patterns of use for a full CT repertoire, need conscious attention. While it is more demanding to set up a suite of integrated tools, the lesser demand for set up and tailoring of spreadsheets still exists, although they can more readily evolve and offer the ability to 'fail fast' because they can easily be redesigned or tweaked to fit the needs of evolving practice.…”

Topics and Treatments in Global Software Engineering Research - A Systematic Snapshot

“…GSE presents a complex context that demands a more extensive repertoire of research methods and approaches than those currently prevailing (Clear and MacDonell, 2011). Given that GSE is fundamentally different from CSE (Richardson et al, 2012), it seems likely that solutions formulated for CSE will need to be updated or enhanced for GSE.…”