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On the role of boundary spanners as a team coordination mechanism in organisationally

distributed projects !

Anh, Nguyen Duc Daniela S. Cruzes

IDI, NTNU

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Agenda!!

❑ Motivation ❑ Research question ❑ Terminology ❑ Research approach ❑ Results ❑ Discussion ❑ Conclusions

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Motivation

• GSD continues to face many coordination challenges across global boundaries

• Many coordination approaches are assumed to work in a homogeneous environment:

Collaborative attitude

Synchronized communication and development tools

Commitment on development practices

Engineering process

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Motivation• Research on GSD has little focus on organisational

boundary offshore/onshore: whether development activities in the same country insource/ outsource: whether development activities in the same company

organisational boundary

geographical, temporal cultural boundary

Darja et al. 2014, An empirically based terminology and taxonomy for global software engineering

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Motivation• Crossing boundary is critical for team coordination

• One mechanism to address these boundary issues is to rely on boundary spanner* - little explored in SE literature

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Natalia et al. 2005, The Emergence of Boundary Spanning Competence in Practice: Implications for Implementation and Use of Information Systems

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Motivation• Crossing boundary is critical for team coordination

• One mechanism to address these boundary issues is to rely on boundary spanner* - little explored in SE literature

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Natalia et al. 2005, The Emergence of Boundary Spanning Competence in Practice: Implications for Implementation and Use of Information Systems

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Motivation• Crossing boundary is critical for team coordination

• One mechanism to address these boundary issues is to rely on boundary spanner* - little explored in SE literature

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!*liaison, knowledge mediators, information broker, bridge engineer, networker, collaborator

Natalia et al. 2005, The Emergence of Boundary Spanning Competence in Practice: Implications for Implementation and Use of Information Systems

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Research questions!!!!!!RQ1. What characteristics of boundary spanners contribute

to effective coordination in distributed software projects? RQ2. In which way boundary spanners handle

dependencies in distributed software projects?

Organizational boundary

Coordination problems

Project outcomes

Boundary spanners

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Terminology• Boundary spanner • Coordination • Dependencies • Organisational boundary • Distributed software project

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Study design & analysis• Exploratory multiple case studies • Project as a unit of analysis • Extreme case, typical case & convenience case • With-in case analysis

• Thematic analysis • Cross-case analysis

• Cross case comparison

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Study design & analysis

16 interviews:

project manager, technical

leader and developers

Axial coding

Selective coding

Concept categorization

Cross case comparison

Identify organizational boundary

Identify coordination challenges

Identify boundary spanners

Coordination capability

Coordination activities

Data collection Data analysis Research purpose

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Case 1: Offshore insourcingContext •Market driven project •5 years old project •Search engine system •150 developers

Interdependency •Technical dependency •Temporal dependency •Process dependency

Coordination infrastructure •TFS, daily virtual meeting, teleconferencing, email •GIT, informal talk, frequent visit

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Context 2: Onshore outsourcing

Interdependency •Technical dependency !

Coordination mechanism •TFS, email, telephone conference, face to face meeting,

Context •Outsourcing bespoken •5 years old project •Ship management system •13 developers

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Case 3: Offshore outsourcing

Interdependency •Technical dependency !

Coordination mechanism •Email, regular meeting, site visit, bridge engineer

Context •Outsourcing bespoken •10 years old project •MIS system •13 developers

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Case 4: Opensourcing

Interdependency •Technical dependency !

Coordination mechanism •TFS, email, telephone conference, face to face meeting,

Context •Outsourcing bespoken •6 years old project •Network analyzer tool •20+ developers

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Result What characteristics of boundary spanners contribute to effective

coordination in distributed software projects?

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Result

• Internal team recognition • Multiple area expertise • Decision making ability • Work and time flexibility

What characteristics of boundary spanners contribute to effective coordination in distributed software projects?

I believe that the project owner trust us deeply… They trust so much that the way of working with us that let to [Team leader name] as an assumption part of technical insight. If [Team Thames] exploded and disappear the customer will have problem. I don’t think [Team Thames] is easy to replace at this time

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Result

• Internal team recognition • Multiple area expertise • Decision making ability • Work and time flexibility

What characteristics of boundary spanners contribute to effective coordination in distributed software projects?

One capacity of a bridge engineer is to be keen on the technology and the development framework, but also be fast on learning business domain and requirement from customers …

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Result

• Internal team recognition • Multiple area expertise • Decision making ability • Work and time flexibility

What characteristics of boundary spanners contribute to effective coordination in distributed software projects?

When you run the projects and try to resolve the conflict and dependencies, that happening up here at management level. A lot of project tracking is done up here. For a big project if this one is late what consequences to the other team? I need to involve in all these stuffs

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Result

• Internal team recognition • Multiple area expertise • Decision making ability • Work and time flexibility

What characteristics of boundary spanners contribute to effective coordination in distributed software projects?

A bridge engineer needs to be ready for a frequent onsite trips. Last year I stayed 6 months in the [Team Baltic]. This year, I have visited them 3 times, but in a shorter trips…

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Result What characteristics of boundary spanners contribute to effective

coordination in distributed software projects?

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ResultIn which way boundary spanners handle dependencies in

distributed software projects?

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Result

• Mediating status information • Mediating task dependency • Managing global boundaries • Mediating practice flow

In which way boundary spanners handle dependencies in distributed software projects?

I need to be sure that everyone got what they needs, nothing more. We often have indirect contact with [Team Danube] via customers. We almost always send email with the copy to relevant product owners and vice versa. For some tasks, I am informed about [Team Danube] from the customer

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Result

• Mediating status information • Mediating task dependency • Managing global boundaries • Mediating practice flow

In which way boundary spanners handle dependencies in distributed software projects?

I know nothing about them [Team Danube, Project River]. Actually I receive tasks from [the team leader name, Team Thames, Project River], he is not exactly a project manager but more like a project organizer. So he received the tasks from [Danube team] and split the tasks for us ...

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Result

• Mediating status information • Mediating task dependency • Managing global boundaries • Mediating practice flow

In which way boundary spanners handle dependencies in distributed software projects?

One of my tasks is to translate requirement documents into a friendly and localized document for the development team at home ...

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Result

• Mediating status information • Mediating task dependency • Managing global boundaries • Mediating practice flow

In which way boundary spanners handle dependencies in distributed software projects?

We have a policy that people should visit [Team Everest] once per year. … to understand the other site how they are work. Seating far away you may ask why they are doing that? You don’t know how the team organized….

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ResultIn which way boundary spanners handle dependencies in

distributed software projects?

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Discussion What are common capacities of boundary spanners as a project coordinator in organizationally distributed software projects?

• Commercial vs. Open source project • Work and time flexibility

• Small vs. large company • External team recognition, • Knowledge of business logic and

technical expertise • Insourcing vs. Outsourcing

• Ability of team configuration

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Discussion In which way boundary spanners handle dependencies in distributed software projects?

• Commercial vs. Open source • Comprehending and transferring tasks • Site visit • Enforcing practices around

boundary object • Small vs large company

• Task integration • Insourcing vs Outsourcing

• Facilite exchanged practices • Sharing knowledge and expertise

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Conclusions • Boundary spanner obtains internal team recognition, multiple

technical expertise and ability of task assignment to be an effective coordinator

• Boundary spanner does negotiating and navigating task information, resolving conflicts and setting boundary objects.

• Boundary spanner needs to be supported with other coordination mechanisms, i.e. standardization, boundary objects.

• Boundary spanner also faces some issues, such as knowledge silos, role conflicts and stress.

• Boundary spanner’s goals should be recognized and aligned with organization’s goal

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