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The geography of coordination: dealing with distance in R&D work

Published: 01 November 1999 Publication History

Abstract

Geographically distributed development creates new questions about how to coordinate multi-site work. In this paper, we present four methods product development organizations used to coordinate their work: functional areas of expertise, product structure, process steps, and customization. We describe the benefits and difficulties with each model. Finally, we discuss two difficulties that occur irrespective of the model used: consequences of unequal distribution of project mass, and finding expertise.

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cover image ACM Conferences
GROUP '99: Proceedings of the 1999 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work
November 1999
400 pages
ISBN:1581130651
DOI:10.1145/320297
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Publication History

Published: 01 November 1999

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Author Tags

  1. collaborative work
  2. coordination mechanisms
  3. geographically distributed development

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GROUP99
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GROUP99: Conference on Supporting Group Work
November 14 - 17, 1999
Arizona, Phoenix, USA

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Overall Acceptance Rate 125 of 405 submissions, 31%

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  • (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
  • (2024)Neurodiversity and the Accessible University: Exploring Organizational Barriers, Access Labor and Opportunities for ChangeProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36410118:CSCW1(1-27)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
  • (2024)Characterising CSCW Research on Human-Robot CollaborationProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36409998:CSCW1(1-31)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
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