Enhancing Communications in Globally Distributed Teams by Leveraging Internet Technology

Abstract

The concept of collaborative software development between groups spanning the globe is becoming more commonly accepted as a means of reducing development time and costs. It may be argued that the distributed development process is less efficient than a localized development process of comparable magnitude, especially because of the overheads involved in synchronization between the distributed teams. While code artifacts can be transferred from one site to the next, the transfer of knowledge -- such as the rationale behind the key architectural decisions -- is more difficult. Context-driven knowledge transfer via Internet can provide an effective mechanism for transcending these barriers through the use of intuitive interfaces and visualizations, which, when applied in conjunction with existing versioning systems and code repositories, can allow developers to gain several benefits: rapid contextual understanding of the previous teams' contributions; and more effective handling of management tasks such as task assignment and planning.

Keywords: Internet, Global Software Development, Offshoring, 24-hour Knowledge Factory, Knowledge Transfer