Understanding the functions of teleconferences for coordinating global software development projects
One of the dominant characteristics of contemporary software development is the global distribution of tasks, of developers, of information and of technologies. Undoubtedly, such distribution engenders new coordination challenges in the form of distance-related interdependencies. One of the predominant processes of addressing these challenges is electronic meetings (or teleconferences). However, the functions of these meetings for coordination purposes are not yet understood. The distinctive conventions of teleconferences and their causal relationships that lead to optimal coordination of global software development (GSD) projects are also not yet understood. In this paper, the functions of teleconferences held by globally distributed software developers to coordinate their work in the face of global distribution of resources, cross-site information interdependencies and continuously changing software requirements are analysed. The analysis is based on a qualitative study of how a subunit of 13 software developers, distributed across three sites in the USA and one in Republic of Ireland, used teleconferences to address its coordination challenges. The paper proffers a teleconference approach to GSD coordination by arguing that the functions of teleconferences manifest in software developers' multitasking; their ready access to all their information as additional benefits; flexibility in their communicative behaviours; and a reduction in their structure overload. This approach draws attention to these manifestations as distinctive conventions of the de-structured meeting, which de-structuring is occasioned by organic information processing needs in teleconferencing. This approach also explains why the combination of global distribution and teleconferences is a strategic opportunity for information processing for software process coordination.
teleconference coordination global software development interdependence information processing distance