The purpose of the research project is to analyse the role of Instant Messaging for complementing traditional project management tools in an established distributed team.

1. EXPLORING THE ROLE
OF INSTANT MESSAGING
IN A GLOBAL SOFTWARE
DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
Yvonne Dittrich ydi@itu.dk
Rosalba Giuffrida rogi@itu.dk
IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN

2. IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN
Problem
Ethnographic Empirical Research
WB project
Role of Instant Messaging
Findings
Future Work
Outline

3. IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN
Problem
Fundamental problem of GSD is that many of the
mechanisms that function to coordinate the work in a
co-located setting are absent or disrupted in a
distributed project.
J. D. Herbsleb.

4. IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN
How
Informal communication
shared through Instant Messaging
complements
formal communication
usually shared through structured tools and
documentation?
Research Question

5. Y. Dittrich, K. Rönkkö, Jeanette Eriksson, Christina Hansson, and Olle Lindeberg. Cooperative
method development. Empirical Software Engineering, 13(3):231–260, December 2007.
Cooperative Method Development (CMD)
Evaluate
introduced
methods
Propose
methods &
guidelines
Empirical
investigation
CMD Phase 1 CMD Phase 2
CMD Phase 3

6. Evaluate
introduced
methods
Propose
methods &
guidelines
Empirical
investigation
CMD Phase 1 CMD Phase 2
CMD Phase 3
Cooperative Method Development (CMD)
Y. Dittrich, K. Rönkkö, Jeanette Eriksson, Christina Hansson, and Olle Lindeberg. Cooperative
method development. Empirical Software Engineering, 13(3):231–260, December 2007.

7. IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN
Ethnographic Empirical Research
! Data Collection: Semi-structured
interviews, Document Analysis, Log Analysis,
Workshops, Participant observation
! Data Analysis: Interaction analysis of IM
logs, Categorization of chat episodes,
Member checking

8. 5 domain experts/software developers in Denmark
6 software developers + 1 tester in India
1 team member in Portland
Customers in Ethiopia
WB Project for water management in Nile Basin
Portland
Copenhagen
New Delhi
Addis Abeba

9. IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN
A typical work day
Time India Denmark
9 IST / 4:30 CET Start work
12:30 IST / 8 CET Ask questions Start working from home
13 IST / 8:30 CET lunch Go to office
14:30 IST / 10 CET Meeting
15:30 IST / 11 CET Intense collaboration
16:30 IST / 12 CET Lunch
17 IST / 12:30 CET Intense collaboration
18 IST / 13:30 CET Finish work
21:30 IST /17 CET Finish work

10. IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN
A typical work day
Time India Denmark
9 IST / 4:30 CET Start work
12:30 IST / 8 CET Ask questions Start working from home
13 IST / 8:30 CET lunch Go to office
14:30 IST / 10 CET Meeting
15:30 IST / 11 CET Intense collaboration
16:30 IST / 12 CET Lunch
17 IST / 12:30 CET Intense collaboration
18 IST / 13:30 CET Finish work
21:30 IST /17 CET Finish work

11. Communication Channels

12. Communication Channels

13. Communication Channels

14. Communication Channels

15. IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN
Dimensions of the use of IM
Coordination Collaboration
Awareness Socialization

16. IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN
Coordination Dimension
Many coordination chats start from the Indian
side, e.g. to inform the task/incident changed
status, and is assigned to the counterpart.
[14:07] IND: 974 is yours now for verification (gap
filler scrollbars)
[14:09] DK: thanks
[11:58] IND: 1008
[12:07] DK: all yours
[12:57] IND: your now.
[15:58] DK: 847 is yours

17. IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN
Collaboration Dimension
! Technical discussions
! Easy-to-resolve issues that do not require much
discussion.
! Last for no more than 10 minutes; on average,
they last 7 minutes.
! Thereafter the topic switches to a call.
! If issues have a wider implication, the
discussion is moved to mail.

18. IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN
Awareness Dimension
! Indian developers inform what they are
working on in order to avoid conflict.
! Danish team members check what people
are working on in order to plan.
! This information is provided by issue
tracker, but often the official tool does not
show what people are actually working on
at the moment.

19. IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN
Socialization Dimension
• Often present as a sub-text in chats mainly
addressing another dimension.
• Some chats are purely addressing the social
dimension taking up e.g. commuting problems or
personal topics.
IND: Hi DK
DK: hi IND
IND: hows monday treating you?
DK: better than usual. Working from home
IND: oh we r on the same boat
DK: good to hear :)

20. IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN
Ecology of channels
IM as a glue articulating other channels
The Social Dimension is Important
Findings

21. IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN
Ecology of Channels
! Analysis needs to focus on
! the ecology of channels. (in line with Turner et al, 2010
! Social protocol and communication breakdowns.
(Damian et al. 2007)
! Communication and coordination mechanisms (Schmidt
Simone1996)

22. IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN
Instant Messaging as Glue
! Unstructured
! Less obtrusive
! Awareness
! Nearly synchronous communication
Instant Messaging

23. IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN
The Social Dimension is Important
! Explicit social chats and sub-
text in work related chats
! The team decided not to use the
notification function of the issue
tracker system to allow for
more social interaction.
! Earlier research proposed
video and virtual worlds to
improve the social dimension of
communication. IM seems to
take that role today.

24. IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN
Future work
! Comparing how different teams combine heterogeneous
artifacts and communication channels in GSD.
! Exploring the use of other kinds of Social Software, such
as microblogging, social networks and content sharing
sites.
! The current concepts from CSCW and GSD are not
enough to understand the ecology of channels we have
observed.
! Using this knowledge to improve
communication and collaboration
in GSD.

25. EXPLORING THE ROLE
OF INSTANT MESSAGING
IN A GLOBAL SOFTWARE
DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
Yvonne Dittrich ydi@itu.dk
Rosalba Giuffrida rogi@itu.dk
IT#UNIVERSITY#OF#COPENHAGEN
THANK YOU :)
Questions?