The Many Facets of Distance and Space: the Mobility of Actors in Globally Distributed Project Teams

TL;DR

This paper explores how mobility of team members in globally distributed software development teams creates a dynamic spatial dimension, affecting collaboration and requiring new models to understand movement patterns and their implications.

Contribution

It introduces a grounded theory-based model for mapping actor mobility in multi-site teams, highlighting the complex interplay of space, accessibility, and context awareness.

Findings

Mobility is a key facet of space in distributed teams.

The model captures static and dynamic movement patterns.

Mobility influences accessibility and context in collaboration.

Abstract

Global software development practices are shaped by the challenges of time and 'distance', notions perceived to separate sites in a multi-site collaboration. Yet while sites may be fixed, the actors in global projects are mobile, so distance becomes a dynamic spatial dimension rather than a static concept. This empirical study applies grounded theory to unpack the nature of mobility within a three site globally distributed team setting. We develop a model for mapping the movements of team members in local and global spaces, and demonstrate its operation through static snapshots and dynamic patterns evolving over time. Through this study we highlight the complexity of 'mobility' as one facet of 'space' in globally distributed teams and illuminate its tight coupling with the accompanying dimensions of accessibility and context awareness.