How a Geographically Distributed Software Team Managed to Negotiate Successfully using Chat Technology
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How a Geographically Distributed Software Team Managed to Negotiate Successfully using Chat Technology. / Tenorio, Nelson; Bjorn, Pernille.
I: Revista Tecnologia e Sociedade, Bind 15, Nr. 37, 2019, s. 183-206.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
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TY - JOUR
T1 - How a Geographically Distributed Software Team Managed to Negotiate Successfully using Chat Technology
AU - Tenorio, Nelson
AU - Bjorn, Pernille
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Negotiation is best accomplished in collocated settings, and negotiation in geographically distributed settings is prone to failure with a risk of conflicts. Investigating distributed software development, we were surprised to discover that a software development team, located in different parts of Brazil, was able to negotiate successfully and reach an agreement to change from ticket-oriented processes towards release-oriented processes for bug fixing activities using only chat technology. In this paper, we explore how the chat technology allowed the distributed software team (including both vendor and client team members) to successfully negotiate and reach agreement about adopting and implementing a new collaborative workflow in the governmental IT-project. Our research method is based upon an ethnographically informed empirical study of the software development involved in a Brazilian software company. Thus, the data collected shows that the chat technology provided a platform for the team to engage informally in important discussions across locations. The chat technology allowed participants to navigate both within and across diverse subgroups (collocated client-developers; distributed clientdeveloper, and distributed developers-developers), which supported successful subgroup dynamics avoiding the risk of conflicts emerging from faultlines.
AB - Negotiation is best accomplished in collocated settings, and negotiation in geographically distributed settings is prone to failure with a risk of conflicts. Investigating distributed software development, we were surprised to discover that a software development team, located in different parts of Brazil, was able to negotiate successfully and reach an agreement to change from ticket-oriented processes towards release-oriented processes for bug fixing activities using only chat technology. In this paper, we explore how the chat technology allowed the distributed software team (including both vendor and client team members) to successfully negotiate and reach agreement about adopting and implementing a new collaborative workflow in the governmental IT-project. Our research method is based upon an ethnographically informed empirical study of the software development involved in a Brazilian software company. Thus, the data collected shows that the chat technology provided a platform for the team to engage informally in important discussions across locations. The chat technology allowed participants to navigate both within and across diverse subgroups (collocated client-developers; distributed clientdeveloper, and distributed developers-developers), which supported successful subgroup dynamics avoiding the risk of conflicts emerging from faultlines.
KW - Chat technology
KW - Negotiation
KW - Global software development
KW - Distributed team
KW - Double level language
KW - Bug fixing
KW - Faultlines
KW - Subgroup dynamics
KW - Software engineering
U2 - 10.3895/rts.v15n37.8655
DO - 10.3895/rts.v15n37.8655
M3 - Journal article
VL - 15
SP - 183
EP - 206
JO - Revista Tecnologia e Sociedade
JF - Revista Tecnologia e Sociedade
SN - 1809-0044
IS - 37
ER -
ID: 229058983