Culture and communication in global software development

Tanner, Maureen C

Culture and communication in global software development

Thesis / Dissertation

2007

Abstract

Global Software Development (GSD) is a growing sector in Mauritius and South Africa. With a constantly increasing number of IT investors, both countries are gradually being recognised as IT hubs in the Southern African region. They offer advantages like cheap and highly skilled labour, and a good IT infrastructure to support the work. GSD is however not easy to orchestrate. Due mostly to cultural disparities and complex communication settings, this particular software development configuration faces numerous issues. In spite of being rich mediums for investigation, no prior GSD research has to date been performed in Mauritius and South Africa. This research has therefore been undertaken in an attempt to shed light on the intricacies of GSD practices followed by these two countries. The purpose of this study is to explore GSD in the South African and Mauritian context, to understand how different forms of Software Development Practices, Cultural Coping strategies, and Communication Practices are being used to overcome the GSD issues and mediate differing cultural affiliations. In addition, the study also looks at the role served by communication technologies to improve the communication process and bridge distance. The study has been performed through multiple qualitative case studies within 4 GSD organisations located in South Africa and Mauritius. The Grounded Theory techniques have been applied to analyse the data through a general inductive approach. The results show that SA and Mauritius face numerous GSD challenges. However based on past experiences and failures they devised several practices to overcome those issues and achieve success. The categories uncovered during the study include GSD Governance, Communication Practices, GSD Team, Software Development Practices, GSD Project, GSD Process Issues, GSD Value Issues, Technology, and Culture. One major finding relates to the fact that different software methods, like the Waterfall model, Prototyping or RUP, can be used to fit specific cultural requirements and mediate cultural issues. These methods are beneficial due to their ability to provide flexibility and rigour in the GSD setting. Flexibility is perceived in the way in which they have been adapted to fit the SA and Mauritian GSD context while rigour is demonstrated in the promotion of standards and rules that should be followed to achieve GSD project success. The second major finding relate to the form of communication employed to mediate both cultural and communication issues. In essence, if only one key person offshore is allowed to communicate with team members onshore, communication issues and cultural issues are no longer felt due to non-existing interactions between the team members. This however shifts the high need for communication towards the offshore team members, who have to collaborate tightly with the designated key person and inform him of all pertinent details of the project. Secondary findings reveal that people have a major role to play during GSO orchestration.. GSO team members should be carefully chosen and should possess high adaptability level, good communication skills and expertise level. These features can be improved through regular training. Finally a wide range of technologies are employed within GSO, each fitting for one specific form of work or communication. In addition, each organisation seems to favour one form of communication technology, in spite of employing a palette of tools. The preference is explained by the cost incurred while employing the tool, the infrastructure effectiveness, and the type of work process followed. One technology can also be used to mediate the disadvantages of others.

Keywords

Information Systems

Reference:

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Masters

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