Distributed software development in agile projects:  a model for the promotion of social interactions

Marcirio Silveira Chaves; Azriel Majdenbaum

doi:10.5585/gep.v11i1.16165

Autores

Marcirio Silveira Chaves Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUC/RS), Rio Grande do Sul http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3554-0328
Azriel Majdenbaum PUCRS http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3171-4933

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5585/gep.v11i1.16165

Palavras-chave:

Social Interaction, Communication, Distributed Software Development, Agile

Resumo

Agile methods address the challenge of an unpredictable world, relying on people and their creativity, flexible team self-organization with incentives for participation, social cooperation and less formalization being increasingly used in larger projects. The issues related to communication, trust, coordination, and social interactions among project stakeholders impact Information Technology team dynamics. This article investigates what the constructs are that lead to the promotion of social interaction in DSD environments. We conducted this qualitative and exploratory research using an interpretative approach to interview 35 project professionals. This paper contributes to the theory by delivering a model for the promotion of social interactions in distributed agile projects. We introduced the interaction coordination variable that emerged from the field, aiming to encourage and direct relationships between team members so that they are aligned with the mutual benefits of the project. These benefits include improving communication, knowledge sharing, and a sense of responsibility for the product. The study also draws the attention of practitioners to the promotion of social interactions in agile DSD environments.

Biografia do Autor

Marcirio Silveira Chaves, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUC/RS), Rio Grande do Sul

Doutor em Informática pela Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

Professor Adjunto da Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul - PUC/RS

Referências

Avenier, M. J., & Thomas, C. (2015). Finding one’s way around various methodological guidelines for doing rigorous case studies: A comparison of four epistemological frameworks. Systemes d'information management, 20(1), 61-98. DOI:10.3917/sim.151.0061

Avison, D., & Malaurent, J. (2013). Qualitative Research in Three IS Journals: Unequal emphasis but common rigour, depth, and richness. Systemes d'information management, 18(4), 75-123. DOI:10.3917/sim.134.0075

Basir, B., & Salam, R. (2015). Tacit requirements elicitation framework. ARPN J. Eng. Appl. Sci, 10(2), 572-578. Retrieved February 19, 2020, from http://www.arpnjournals.com/jeas/research_papers/rp_2015/jeas_0215_1492.pdf.

Beck, K., Beedle, M., van Bennekum, A., Cockburn, A., Cunningham, W., Fowler, M., Grenning, J., Highsmith, J., Hunt, A., Jeffries, R., Kern, J., Marick, B., Martin, R. C., Mellor, S., Schwaber, K., Sutherland, J. & Thomas, D. (2001). Manifesto for agile software development. 2001. URL: http://www.agilemanifesto.org (visited on 14/11/2019).

Bygstad, B., Nielsen, P. A., & Munkvold, B. E. (2010). Four integration patterns: a socio‐technical approach to integration in IS development projects. Information Systems Journal, 20(1), 53-80. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2575.2007.00280.x

Carneiro, R. A. (2017). Entendendo as intersecções entre a comunicação, gestão ágil de projetos e desenvolvimento distribuído de software. Doctoral thesis, Universidade Metodista de Piracicaba, Santa Bárbara D’Oeste, São Paulo, Brasil.

Carvalho, M. M. D., & Mirandola, D. (2007). A comunicação em projetos de TI: uma análise comparativa das equipes de sistemas e de negócios. Production, 17(2), 330-342. doi:10.1590/S0103-65132007000200009

Chen, Y. (2015). An empirical study of communication media and issues in globally distributed software development. Master thesis, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA.

Chung, Y., & Jackson, S. E. (2011). Co-worker trust and knowledge creation: A multilevel analysis. Journal of Trust Research, 1(1), 65-83. DOI:10.1080/21515581.2011.552425

Damasiotis, V., & Fitsilis, P. (2015). Assessing software project management complexity: PMCAT tool. In New Trends in Networking, Computing, E-learning, Systems Sciences, and Engineering (pp. 235-242). Springer, Cham. DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-06764-3_30

Dingsøyr, T., Fægri, T. E., & Itkonen, J. (2014, December). What is large in large-scale? A taxonomy of scale for agile software development. In International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement (pp. 273-276). Springer, Cham. DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-13835-0_20

Dougherty, D. (1992). Interpretive Barriers to Successful Product Innovation in Large Firms. Organization Science, 3(2), 179-202. Retrieved February 19, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/2635258

Dwivedi, Y. K., Wastell, D., Laumer, S., Henriksen, H. Z., Myers, M. D., Bunker, D., ... & Srivastava, S. C. (2015). Research on information systems failures and successes: Status update and future directions. Information Systems Frontiers, 17(1), 143-157. DOI:10.1007/s10796-014-9500-y

Dyba, T. (2000). Improvisation in small software organizations. IEEE Software, 17(5), 82-87. DOI:10.1109/52.877872

Eskerod, P., Huemann, M., & Savage, G. (2015). Project stakeholder management—past and present. Project Management Journal, 46(6), 6-14. DOI:10.1002/pmj.21555

Esra'a Alhasanat, M. A., & Hammad, M. (2015). Dynamic virtual teams in project management. International Journal of u-and e-Service, Science and Technology, 8(7), 251-258. DOI:10.14257/ijunesst.2015.8.7.25

Farias Junior, I. H. (2014). C2M – A Communication Maturity Model for Distributed Software Development. Doctoral thesis, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Pernambuco, Brasil.

Gefen, D., Karahanna, E., & Straub, D. W. (2003). Trust and TAM in online shopping: An integrated model. MIS Quarterly, 27(1), 51-90. DOI:10.2307/30036519

Gehman, J., Glaser, V. L., Eisenhardt, K. M., Gioia, D., Langley, A., & Corley, K. G. (2018). Finding theory–method fit: A comparison of three qualitative approaches to theory building. Journal of Management Inquiry, 27(3), 284-300. DOI:10.1177/1056492617706029

Ghobadi, S. (2015). What drives knowledge sharing in software development teams: A literature review and classification framework. Information & Management, 52(1), 82-97. DOI:10.1016/j.im.2014.10.008

Ghobadi, S., & Mathiassen, L. (2016). Perceived barriers to effective knowledge sharing in agile software teams. Information Systems Journal, 26(2), 95-125. DOI:10.1111/isj.12053

Gioia, D. A., & Chittipeddi, K. (1991). Sensemaking and sensegiving in strategic change initiation. Strategic management journal, 12(6), 433-448. DOI:10.1002/smj.4250120604

Glória Júnior, I., Oliveira, R. & Chaves, M. S. (2014). A Proposal for Using Web 2.0 Technologies in SCRUM. In Proc. of the 22nd European Conference on Information Systems, Tel Aviv, Israel, 9-11 June.

Gupta, H. (2015). Social Media Usage and its effect on virtual team dynamics: a transactive memory system approach. Doctoral thesis, University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Henderson, L. S., Stackman, R. W., & Lindekilde, R. (2016). The centrality of communication norm alignment, role clarity, and trust in global project teams. International Journal of Project Management, 34(8), 1717-1730. DOI:10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.09.012

Huck-Fries, V., Prommegger, B., Wiesche, M., & Krcmar, H. (2019, January). The Role of Work Engagement in Agile Software Development: Investigating Job Demands and Job Resources. In Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. DOI:10125/60141

Iden, J., & Bygstad, B. (2018). The social interaction of developers and IT operations staff in software development projects. International Journal of Project Management, 36(3), 485-497. DOI:10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.12.001

Kankanhalli, A., Tan, B. C., & Wei, K. K. (2005). Contributing knowledge to electronic knowledge repositories: an empirical investigation. MIS quarterly, 113-143. DOI:10.2307/25148670

Kappelman, L. A., McKeeman, R., & Zhang, L. (2006). Early warning signs of IT project failure: The dominant dozen. Information systems management, 23(4), 31-36. DOI:10.1201/1078.10580530/46352.23.4.20060901/95110.4

Kautz, K., Madsen, S., & Nørbjerg, J. (2007). Persistent problems and practices in information systems development. Information Systems Journal, 17(3), 217-239. DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2575.2007.00222.x

Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Khvatova, T., & Block, M. (2017). Exploring the role of task-related trust in intra-organizational knowledge sharing. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 28(2), 333-355. DOI:10.1080/09585192.2016.1244908

Koch, H., Leidner, D. E., & Gonzalez, E. S. (2013). Digitally enabling social networks: resolving IT–culture conflict. Information Systems Journal, 23(6), 501-523. DOI:10.1111/isj.12020

Kwak, Y. H., & Anbari, F. T. (2009). Analyzing project management research: Perspectives from top management journals. International Journal of Project Management, 27(5), 435-446. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.08.004

Majdenbaum, A., & Chaves, M. (2020). Comunicação em projetos de desenvolvimento global de software: A visão dos praticantes. Gestão & Regionalidade, 36(107). DOI: 10.13037/gr.vol36n107.5385

Malone, T. W., Malone, T. W., & Crowston, K. (1994). The interdisciplinary study of coordination. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 26(1), 87-119. DOI:10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.08.004

Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H., & Schoorman, F. D. (1995). An integrative model of organizational trust. Academy of management review, 20(3), 709-734. DOI:10.5465/amr.1995.9508080335

McLeod, L., & Doolin, B. (2012). Information systems development as situated socio-technical change: a process approach. European Journal of Information Systems, 21(2), 176-191. DOI:10.1057/ejis.2011.43

McLeod, L., & MacDonell, S. G. (2011). Factors that affect software systems development project outcomes: A survey of research. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 43(4), 24. DOI:10.1145/1978802.1978803

Mueller, J. (2015). Formal and informal practices of knowledge sharing between project teams and enacted cultural characteristics. Project Management Journal, 46(1), 53-68. DOI:10.1002/pmj.21471

Molena, A., & Rovai, R. L. (2016). Reference model for improved communicability in projects. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business. DOI:10.1108/IJMPB-01-2016-0006

Nahapiet, J., & Ghoshal, S. (1998). Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage. Academy of management review, 23(2), 242-266. DOI: 10.5465/amr.1998.533225

Nidiffer, K. E., & Dolan, D. (2005). Evolving distributed project management. IEEE Software, 22(5), 63-72. DOI:10.1109/MS.2005.120

Ojansivu, I., & Alajoutsijärvi, K. (2015). Inside service-intensive projects: Analyzing inbuilt tensions. International Journal of Project Management, 33(4), 901-916. DOI:10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.11.001

Ou, C. X., Pavlou, P. A., & Davison, R. (2014). Swift guanxi in online marketplaces: The role of computer-mediated communication technologies. MIS Quarterly, 38(1), 209-230. DOI: 10.2307/26554875

Park, J. G., & Lee, J. (2014). Knowledge sharing in information systems development projects: Explicating the role of dependence and trust. International J. of Project Management, 32(1), 153-165. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.02.004

Paasivaara, M., Lassenius, C., & Heikkilä, V. T. (2012, September). Inter-team coordination in large-scale globally distributed scrum: Do scrum-of-scrums really work?. In Proceedings of the ACM-IEEE international symposium on Empirical software engineering and measurement (pp. 235-238). ACM. DOI: 10.1145/2372251.2372294

Prikladnicki, R., & Magalhães, A. L. C. C. (2010, October). Implantação de Modelos de maturidade com metodologias ágeis: um relato de experiências. In VI Workshop Anual do MPS (WAMPS) (pp. 88-98). Campinas–SP Brasil.

Procaccino, J. D., Verner, J. M., & Lorenzet, S. J. (2006). Defining and contributing to software development success. Communications of the ACM, 49(8), 79-83. DOI:10.1145/1145287.1145291

Qureshi, I., Fang, Y., Haggerty, N., Compeau, D. R., & Zhang, X. (2018). IT mediated social interactions and knowledge sharing: Role of competence‐based trust and background heterogeneity. Information Systems Journal, 28(5), 929-955. DOI:10.1111/isj.12181

Qureshi, R., Basheri, M., & Alzahrani, A. A. (2018). Novel Framework to Improve Communication and Coordination among Distributed Agile Teams. International Journal of Information Engineering and Electronic Business, 10(4), 16. DOI:10.5815/ijieeb.2018.04.03

Ramos, A. B., & Junior, D. C. V. (2017). A Influência do Papel do Scrum Master no Desenvolvimento de Projetos Scrum. Revista de Gestão e Projetos - GeP, 8(3), 80-99. DOI:10.5585/gep.v8i3.556

Scheerer, A., Hildenbrand, T., & Kude, T. (2014, January). Coordination in large-scale agile software development: A multiteam systems perspective. In System Sciences (HICSS), 2014 47th Hawaii International Conference on (pp. 4780-4788). IEEE. DOI:10.1109/HICSS.2014.587

Schwaber, K., & Beedle, M. (2002). Agile software development with Scrum (Vol. 1). Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall.

Schwaber, K. & Sutherland, J., (2017). The Scrum guide. The definitive guide to Scrum: The rules of the game. Disponível em http://www.scrumguides.org/. Acesso em 02/06/2018.

Shenhar, A., Pinto, J., Winch, G., & Huemann, M. (2018). Reflections on Rodney Turner's impact and the future of the field: An interview with Aaron Shenhar, Jeffrey Pinto and Graham Winch. International Journal of Project Management, 36(1), 222-226. DOI:10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.09.004

Söderlund, J. (2010). Theoretical foundations of project management. Suggestions for pluralistic understanding. In P. W. G. Morris, J. Pinto & J. Söderlund (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Project Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Solli-Sæther, H., Karlsen, J. T., & van Oorschot, K. (2015). Strategic and cultural misalignment: Knowledge sharing barriers in project networks. Project Management Journal, 46(3), 49-60. DOI:10.1002/pmj

Sommerville, I. (2015). Software Engineering. 10th Edition. Boston: Addison-Wesley.

Stojanov, I., Turetken, O., & Trienekens, J. J. (2015, August). A maturity model for scaling agile development. In 2015 41st Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (pp. 446-453). IEEE. DOI:10.1109/SEAA.2015.29

Turkulainen, V., Aaltonen, K., & Lohikoski, P. (2015). Managing project stakeholder communication: The Qstock festival case. Project Management Journal, 46(6), 74-91. DOI:10.1002/pmj.21547

Turkulainen, V., Kujala, J., Artto, K., & Levitt, R. E. (2013). Organizing in the context of global project-based firm — The case of sales–operations interface. Industrial Marketing Management, 42(2), 223-233. DOI:10.1016/j.indmarman.2012.08.004

Turner, J. H. (1988). A theory of social interaction. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Vasanthapriyan, S., Tian, J., & Xiang, J. (2015, August). A survey on knowledge management in software engineering. In 2015 IEEE International Conference on Software Quality, Reliability and Security-Companion (pp. 237-244). IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/QRS-C.2015.48

Winograd, T., Flores, F., & Flores, F. F. (1986). Understanding computers and cognition: A new foundation for design. Norwood, NJ: Intellect Books.

Xu, P. (2009). Coordination in large agile projects. The Review of Business Information Systems (RBIS), 13(4), 29-43. DOI: 10.19030/rbis.v13i4.4310

Yadav, V. (2016). A flexible management approach for globally distributed software projects. Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management, 17(1), 29-40. DOI:10.1007/s40171-015-0118-9

Ziek, P., & Anderson, J. D. (2015). Communication, dialogue, and project management. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business. DOI:10.1108/IJMPB-04-2014-0034