Virtual and distributed teams The world is getting smaller

Virtual and distributed teams

The world is getting smaller

Business globalization - global software developing teams

• Software has become a vital component of almost every business

• Low cost

• Improve time to marked (using time zone differences)

• Capitalize on the global resource pool (knowledge/innovation)

• Business advantages of proximity to market, knowledge of customers and local conditions

• Capitalize on merger and acquisition opportunities

The present world order

• Europe – is strong on design• USA – the marked leader• Asia – low cost • India – soon to become an absolute giant

when it comes to IT development • Just-in-time, lean, customize to order …. • Customer specific products (1-on-1)

Exercise

• Do you yourself experience the effect of a more globalized world? How?

• Which challenges do you experience/foresee for your company/organization in relation to software engineering in the future?

Six personasSix challenges

Solutions & tools

Alice turns to the world

• ”Trust me to do it” was the last thing Alice said in the communication with Bala in Mumbai

• It had been hard to get use to talking and writing in English. But this morning Alice – to her surprise – realized that she had been dreaming in English. Probably an unexpected effect of being so engaged in the project!

• More and more seldom did she use the little Danish-English dictionary she had on her PC and on her little hand-held video-phone

Challenge #1 in the Virtual Project:

Interaction

• Programmers who don´t communicate creates program that don´t communicate

• Out of sight out of mind• Restricted or lack of interaction between

project members• Lack of common knowledge• Informal meetings – in the hallway, at lunch,

or at the coffee machine or water cooler – are lost

Solution: Improved interaction• Communicate often and

regularly• Use many different

communication forms and medie

• Get to know each other (well)

• Make a point out of listening and understanding

• Learn ENGLISH

IT that can be used:• Telephone, fax, email,

databasers web-pages, SKYPE etc.

• Dictionaries and translation software

• Make a ”Picture Book” about everyone containing details such as family and hobbies as well as abilities that can be used in project

Benny becomes aware of invisible colleagues

• Benny was hit by a strange feeling – as if there was an invisible colleagues struggling with a problem.

• Quickly he started Skype, clicked twice … ringing … LI MING came on and said ”How could you know I wanted to talk with you about your sorting algorithm?”

• “ I could just feel it” answered Benny

Challenge #2 in the Virtual Project:

Coordination

• What am I doing here? • You lack knowledge of what the others are

doing• People work alone because that is the easiest• Many people work (unintendedly) on solving

the same task or work package

Solution: Improved Coordination

• Better Project Management

• Clearly defined work• Overview for all: Who

does what• Create a climate for

working together• Reward and make

individual contributions visible

Tools that can be used:• Responsibility matrix

(tasks/people)• Make the plan and

progress reports visible on the virtual wall

Charlie has joined the “nightshift”

• It is midnight, Charlie logon to his computer and call the project manager in far-far-land. It has become a happed to logon to the computer and make a call before going to bed.

• In the beginning it was irritating, not working 9 to 5, but now he had become use to it. It was necessary to take advantage of all possible time overlap allowing synchronized communication . The new life style also had advantages, he could be more flexible in relation to the family.

Challenge #3 in the virtual project:

The world is round• Midnight for me may be morning (or the end

of a working day) for you. • Only a few overlapping work hours• Long response time even for very simple

questions

Solution: Broaden your horizon

• Rotate the time for project meetings

• Recognize that we have different time zones

• Be aware of holidays and other times you should not call or plan meetings/deadlines

• Respect differences in how work life is organized

IT that can be used:• www.timeanddate.com

World Clock• Make a map and a

calendar showing when and where people are working

http://www.timeanddate.com/

Daniel believe that differences make the team stronger

• In the beginning it had been irritating. Different holidays, different time zones, different customs

• Now he understood how to use the calendar with all the color codes

• He had also learned to understand the differences in how to estimate, use deadlines, make commitments…. actually understand that they approached the development very differently.

• Over time he had also learned how to split the work in a better way so that they did not depend so much on each other, how to take advantage of differences and how to make it visible who was doing what.

• Visiting for three months had rely helped him understand

Challenge #4 in the virtual project :

Cultural differences • A working day for me can be a day off for you• Differences in values – e.g. in relation to

power, uncertainty, being good/a failure, what constitutes success, deadlines, teamwork Religion can also play a (unexpected) role

Solution: Work with the differences

• Be aware of and respect differences

• Educate your self and others so that they know the cultural differences. Create a nice working climate; appreciate differences

IT that can be used:• http://www.geert-

hofstede.com/

Differences in national culture

• Hofstede (1980) studied cultural values among IBM employees in 40 countries. He conducted a survey including 116.000 questionnaires. Based on the answers he identified four dimensions.

• “The concept of national culture or national character has suffered from vagueness … For a set of forty independent nations, I have tried to determine empirically the main criteria by which their national cultures differed. I found four such criteria, which I labeled dimensions: these are …

The four dimensions

1. Power Distance, 2. Uncertainty Avoidance, 3. Individualism-Collectivism, and 4. Masculinity-Femininity

Kilde: Hofstede, G. (1980). Motivation, Leadership and Organization: Do American Theories Apply Abroad?. In:

Organizational Dynamics, summer 1980, page 42-63.

Power Distance

Small Power Distance(Denmark, Sweden, Israel)

• “Inequality in society should be minimized”

• “All should have equal rights”• “Hierarchy means an

inequality of roles established for convenience”

• “The way to change a social system is to redistribute power”

Large Power Distance(France, Philippines, Hong Kong)

• “There should be an order of inequality in this world in which everybody has a rightful place; high and low are protected by this order”

• “Power-holders are entitled to privileges”

• “Hierarchy means existential inequality”

• “The way to change a social system is to dethrone those in power”

Uncertainty Avoidance

Weak uncertainty avoidance

(Danmark, Singapore, UK)

• Less showing of emotions are preferred

• There is more willingness to take risks in life

• As few rules as possible• If rules cannot be kept, we

should change them

Strong uncertainty avoidance

(Japan, Portugal, France)

• More showing of emotions are preferred

• There is great concern with security in life

• There is a need for written rules and regulations

• If rules cannot be kept we are sinners and should repent

Collectivist - Individualist

Collectivist(Pakistan, Hong Kong, Thailand)

• In society, people are born into extended families or clans who protect them in exchange for loyalty

• Identity is based on the social system

• The emphasis is on belonging in organizations;

• Membership is the ideal

Individualist(USA, UK, Denmark, Canada)

• In society, everybody is supposed to take care of himself/herself and his/her immediate family

• Identity is based on the individual

• The emphasis is on individual initiative and achievement;

• Leadership is the ideal

Feminime - Masculine

Feminine(Sweden, Norway, Denmark)

• “Men needn't be assertive, but can also assume nurturing roles.”

• “Quality of life is important”• “You work in order to live”• “People and environment are

important”• “Small and slow are beautiful”

Masculine(Japan, Italy, Australia, UK, USA)

• “Men should be assertive. Women should be nurturing.”

• “Performance is what counts”• “You live in order to work”• “Money and things are

important”• “Big and fast are beautiful”

Ellen is hanging out at the virtual water cooler

• Two clicks and she stood at the water cooler. Now hundreds of people around the world could see her on their screens hanging out at the water cooler.

• Immediately someone asked ”How are you”, she could see Roald smiling at her.

• While they were chatting about gas prices in their countries Carmen came along.

• ”Have you tried the new Java compiler” she asked. Actually Roald had and they immediately agreed that the error massages were ……


Identity and trust

• It is difficult to establish trust• Committing your self and others are difficult• A feeling of being alone, isolated; there may

not be a common WE

Solution: Virtual identity and meetings

• Get to know each other face-to-face and virtually

• Create trust and a common history

• Respect each other

IT that can be used:• Video conferences • Email • Organizational picture

book on the web• Hanging out at the virtual

water cooler

Supporting identity and commitment

1.OrienteringHVORFORer jeg her?

2.Opbygge tillid

HVEMEr du??

4.CommitmentHVORDANGør vi det?

3.Afklaring af mål

HVAD Skal vi lave?

5.Implemen-

teringHVEM gør HVAD,

HVORNÅR, HVOR?

6.Høj

performanceWOW

7.Fornyelse

HVORFORForsætte?

Initiating Manintaining

Picture book

Face-to face meetings

Responsibility matrix

The virtual water cooler

Visible plans and progress reports Communication ++

Tele- and video conferences

Frederik gets a technological update

• New computer and new applications.• It had been a little difficult to let go of the old

applications and all the small personal adjustments to them, but too much time was wasted trying to make the old platform work in the new project.

• Finally everyone was compatible, now everyone could see what the others were doing and help each other.


Incompatibility• Systems that can’t talk with each other• Files that can’t be opened or shared• No technological standard• Too complex technology• Processes that doesn't match

Solution: Standardizing if possible

• Technology isn’t a silver bullet; it supports work but can't do the work

• Remember it is more important what is communicated than where/how it is communicated

IT that can be used:• Technical support that

works (fast) • SharePoint, Groove,

specific workspace/ technological platform for projects

Issues related to global SE(Herbsleb and Moitra 2001)

• Strategic issues - (division of work, job security, loss of control, relocation, extensive travel)

• Cultural issues• Inadequate communication - (limited face-to-face

communication, time zone differences, language, culture)

• Project and process management issues -(coordination/synchronization)

• Technical issues - (data formats, tools, configuration management)

Tactical Approaches for Alleviating Distance(Carmel and Afarwal 2001)

Coordination:The act of integrating each task with each organizational unit, so that the unit contributes to the overall objective

Control:The process of adhering to goals, policies, standards, or quality levels

Communication:A mediating factor affecting both coordination and control (reaching common understanding)

A Software task maturity function(Camel and Agarwal 2001)

Tactic 1: Reduce intensive collaboration

Tactic 2:Reduce cultural distance (I)

Tactic 2:Reduce cultural distance (II)

25% of personal on-shore serving as a bridge; reducing cultural distance• more experienced individuals•Ease the understand requirement spec. •Face-to-face communication

Common language or foreign Language courses provided

Project manager or key executive who travels back and forth•Facilitate communication; bridge cultures•Mediate conflicts•Resolve cultural miscommunication

IT workers within the corporate network – inside the firewall; access to knowledge-bases, calenders, Web pages ……

Managing cross-cultural issues (I)(Krishna et al. 2004)

Strategic choice of projects:

Managing the relatioship:

Staffing Issues:

Training:

Managing cross-cultural issues (II)(Krishna et al. 2004)

Tactic 3:Reducing temporal distance

Collaboration practiceMulti case study (Passivaara and Lassenius 2003)

Synchronization of main milestones Linked to the software development process used in the collaborating companiesFrequent deliveries

Establishment of peer-to-peer links Effect the organizational structure and the roles in the collaborating companies

Problem-solving practices Support communication and collaboration within and between collaborating companies

(collections of several practices that are closely related and have similar goals)

Informing and monitoring practices

Relationship building practices

Synchronization of main milestonesAdvantage: (1) Collaboration can be started faster if the subcontractor can use their own process, and (2) makes it possible to allow cooperation between several organizations having different development processes

= Process phase = Major milestone = Builds

Customer process

Subcibtractor process

(if iterations are used then iteration cycles also need to be synchronized)

(Passivaara and Lassenius 2003)

Frequent deliveries

• Prevent long periods of independent development

• Bring transparency of work to all partners (trust can be developed as a side effect)

• Ensure compatible work is performed• Ensure better understanding of requirements• Easier to monitor real progress• Provide instant feedback on work (motivating)


Establishment of Peer-to-peer Links

• Need to explicit create roles, assign roles and indicate which roles need to communicate

• Makes structure more clear to all parties

• Roles should have matching counterparts

• Roles make communication a task (part of the job)

• Management had some concerns about team level communication

Managementlevel

Projectlevel

Teamlevel

Customer Subcontractor


Problem-solving Practices

All case projects had problems and questions requiring timely solutions Agreed-upon problem-solving communication channels is needed– System architects– Discussion lists or bulletin boards– Problem e-mailbox


Informing and Monitoring Practices

Project information; project progress, what tasks to perform next and feedback on work, is needed not just for coordination but also for motivation of team members

– Weekly meetings• Teleconferences for small projects• Small local meetings followed by video-/teleconferences for larger

projects– Progress reports

• Sufficient progress monitoring is difficult to establish– Traveling steering group

• easier decision making• overview of the project• knowledge about local sites• provide a possibility to meet representatives from other sites when

visiting (Passivaara and Lassenius 2003)

Relation building practices• Early face-to-face meetings start relationship building

and facilitate later electronic communication• Kick-off meetings not always possible (cost)• Distant colleagues seems to be disregarded much

easier• Problem solving, training or other practical tasks can

be used as opportunities to meet face-to-face• Frequent deliveries facilitate trust building and good

relationship• Web page with organizational chart including names,

roles, photos, and contact information is regarded as very useful


Summing up

• Different projects pose different challenges and require/allow different solutions!

• Five general issues are identified:– Strategic issues– Cultural issues– Inadequate communication

– Project and process management– Technical issues

Documents

Virtual and distributed teams The world is getting smaller