Can agile software tools bring the benefits of a task board to globally distributed teams?

Christiaan Katsma, Chintan Amrit Amrit, Jos van Hillegersberg, Nicolaas Sikkel

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademicpeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)
34 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Software-based tooling has become an essential part of globally disitrbuted software development. In this study we focus on the usage of such tools and task boards in particular. We investigate the deployment of these tools through a field research in 4 different companies that feature agile and globally distributed development teams. We interviewed a total of 15 developers and concluded that the paper-based task board currently still has many advantages when compared to its software-based solution. Our findings indicate that the majority of the investigated companies that use the agile method Scrum also work with a software tool to support Scrum. While distributed teams use a software only approach, a large portion of collocated teams we studied utilize a combination of a paper based task board and the archiving and integration properties of the software solution. We reflect on these findings through the lens of media synchronicity theory and conclude that this theory is useful for explaining the current use and future development of software tools to support agile globally distributed development teams.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAdvances in Global Sourcing. Models, Governance, and Relationships
Subtitle of host publication7th Global Sourcing Workshop 2013, Val d’Isère, France, March 11-14, 2013, Revised Selected Papers
EditorsIlan Oshri, Julia Kotlarsky, Leslie P. Willcocks
Place of PublicationBerlin
PublisherSpringer
Pages163-179
Number of pages17
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-642-40951-6
ISBN (Print)978-3-642-40950-9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2013
Event7th Global Sourcing Workshop 2013: Advances in Global Sourcing. Models, Governance, and Relationships - Val d'Isere, France
Duration: 11 Mar 201314 Mar 2013
Conference number: 7

Publication series

Nameecture Notes in Business Information Processing
PublisherSpringer
Volume163
ISSN (Print)1865-1348
ISSN (Electronic)1865-1356

Workshop

Workshop7th Global Sourcing Workshop 2013
Country/TerritoryFrance
CityVal d'Isere
Period11/03/1314/03/13

Keywords

  • SCS-Services
  • IR-87594
  • METIS-300037
  • EWI-23765

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