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When Distribution of Tasks and Skills are Fundamentally Problematic: A Failure Story from Global Software Outsourcing

Authors:

Stina Matthiesen,

Pernille BjørnAuthors Info & Claims

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Volume 1, Issue CSCW

Article No.: 74, Pages 1 - 16

https://doi.org/10.1145/3139336

Published: 06 December 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Using ethnographic data, we provide a critical reflection on the discrepancies between the application of agile development principles and the conditions which render these principles effective for global software development work. This reflection is based on the analysis of a failed collaboration within a global software project, which relied heavily on feedback from mundane project tools utilized for everyday coordination and monitoring. Our study reveals that these tools hid serious issues relating to both the distribution of socio-technical skills and a discharge of accountability in task execution. As a result, markers of complex collaborative problems were concealed. Furthermore, the imbalance evident in outsourcing setups, which is enacted through high and low status task distribution among partners, further compounds collaboration problems by emphasizing assumptions about remote workers in the absence of direct forms of knowledge interchange.

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Duckert MBjørn P(2024)Revisiting Grudin’s eight challenges for developers of groupware technologies 30 years lateri-com10.1515/icom-2023-003923:1(7-31)Online publication date: 21-Mar-2024
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Bjørn PBusboom JDuckert MBødker SShklovski IHoggan EDunn KMu QBarkhuus LBoulus-Rødje N(2024)Achieving Symmetry in Synchronous Interaction in Hybrid Work is ImpossibleACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/364861731:4(1-34)Online publication date: 19-Sep-2024
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Index Terms

When Distribution of Tasks and Skills are Fundamentally Problematic: A Failure Story from Global Software Outsourcing
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing

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Published In

cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction Volume 1, Issue CSCW

November 2017

2095 pages

EISSN:2573-0142

DOI:10.1145/3171581

Editors:
Clifford Lampe
University of Michigan
,
Jeff Nichols
Google
,
Karrie Karahalios
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
,
Geraldine Fitzpatrick
Vienna University of Technology
,
Uichin Lee
KAIST
,
Andres Monroy-Hernandez
Snap Inc.
,
Wolfgang Stuerzlinger
Simon Fraser University

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Copyright © 2017 ACM.

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Published: 06 December 2017

Published in PACMHCI Volume 1, Issue CSCW

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3701199
Duckert MBjørn P(2024)Revisiting Grudin’s eight challenges for developers of groupware technologies 30 years lateri-com10.1515/icom-2023-003923:1(7-31)Online publication date: 21-Mar-2024
https://doi.org/10.1515/icom-2023-0039
Bjørn PBusboom JDuckert MBødker SShklovski IHoggan EDunn KMu QBarkhuus LBoulus-Rødje N(2024)Achieving Symmetry in Synchronous Interaction in Hybrid Work is ImpossibleACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/364861731:4(1-34)Online publication date: 19-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3648617
Duckert MBarkhuus LBjørn P(2023)Collocated Distance: A Fundamental Challenge for the Design of Hybrid Work TechnologiesProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3580899(1-16)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
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Jardim RSantos LRodrigues HFrança JVivacqua A(2023)Measurement of collaboration with agile practices in a Virtual Learning EnvironmentProcedia Computer Science10.1016/j.procs.2023.07.005221:C(33-40)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2023
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