Virtual Teams
Download
Report
Transcript Virtual Teams
Virtual Teams
The trouble of sitting apart
28.04.2003
IN364 – Team 2
1
Introduction
Group Dynamics
“Normal” teams
Virtual teams
Overcoming the Barriers
Time and Space
Handeling Trouble
Discussion
Summary
28.04.2003
IN364 – Team 2
2
Group Dynamics
“You cannot NOT communicate”
28.04.2003
IN364 – Team 2
3
Teams nowadays
Agile Software development has increasing
popularity
Stresses the importance of being colocated
Pair Programming
Have the hole team - including the client - in the same
room
Globalization and Outsourcing
28.04.2003
Access to the entire worlds “brain pool”
IN364 – Team 2
4
Teams – some terms…
“A Work team is a cohesive production unit, it has all the qualities of regular groups
but are set apart in nature and magnitude.”
Interaction
Task Focus
Socioemotional
Structure
Roles
Normes
Relations
Cohesiveness
The ”we-feeling”
28.04.2003
IN364 – Team 2
Social identity
Part of the self-concept
Goals
The reason the team exists
5
Different kinds of virtual
Development
Multisite
Offshore
Designers at one location send specifications to programmers at
another location Outsourcing
Distributed
Large teams in relatively few locations
Each location develops a subsystem
The leaders of each location meet often
A team spread over relatively many locations, with relatively few
people, one or two, per location
Open source development
28.04.2003
Unlimited number of people contributing, no time frame
IN364 – Team 2
6
Virtual Team Development
Micro and Macro levels
Stages of development
28.04.2003
Initiation
Exploration
Collaboration
Dissolution
IN364 – Team 2
7
The Virtual Team Predicament
Communication
Whit no physical presence, you lose tons of
information
28.04.2003
Body language
Pronunciation
Tone of voice
Formal vs. Informal information flow
IN364 – Team 2
8
The Virtual Team Predicament
Time zones
Culture
28.04.2003
Difference in nationalities, work styles, …..
Will the Virtual Team ever truly be a real team, or is it
only tow separate teams working on the same
problem?
IN364 – Team 2
9
Overcoming the
barriers
Transcending Time and Space
28.04.2003
IN364 – Team 2
10
Time
Clock Time
Silence
”Work by the sun”
Relocating time
Timeless Time
28.04.2003
Norms of communication
Operating in a polychronic mode
IN364 – Team 2
11
Space
Physical distance
Diversity in Ethnic/National Cultures
Sharing ”placeless space”
Solidarity
Being sensitive
Planning for difference in holidays and cultural events
Technology
28.04.2003
Taking inventory of experience
Compromise
IN364 – Team 2
12
Handling Trouble
The value of conflict
Drives the teams development forward, but also backwards
Four basic ways of dealing with trouble
Passive
Avoiding
Inaction, “wait-and-see” attitude
Yielding
Acceptance, giving in, smoothing
Active
Fighting
Forcing, dominating, competing
Cooperating
Sharing, collaborating, problem solving
28.04.2003
IN364 – Team 2
13
Discussion
How did YOU handle yourselves?
28.04.2003
IN364 – Team 2
14
Summery
Virtual Teams are work teams with extra
challenges in communication
What you gain in competence you lose in
communication costs
Use well known strategies to overcome the
time and space barriers
28.04.2003
IN364 – Team 2
15
References
Cockburn A.
Forsyth D.
Agile Software Development
Group Dynamics
Sarker S. and Sahay S.
28.04.2003
Understanding Virtual Team Development: An
Interpretive Study
Information Systems Development by US-Norwegian
Virtual Teams: Implications of Time and Space
IN364 – Team 2
16