How Social Software Supports Cooperative Practices in a Globally Distributed Software Project Rosalba Giuffrida rogi@itu.dk Yvonne Dittrich ydi@itu.dk

IT  UNIVER

SITY  OF  CO

PENHA

GEN

IT  UNIVER

SITY  OF  CO

PENHA

GEN

Problem Ethnographic Empirical Research Coordination Mechanisms Communicative Genres Findings Future Work

Outline

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Problem

Fundamental problem of GSD is that many of the mechanisms that

function to coordinate the work in a co-located setting are absent or disrupted

in a distributed project.

J. D. Herbsleb.

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How does Social Software support remote cooperation

complementing collaborative SE tools

used in everyday practices of GSD teams?

Research Question

Social Software (SoSo)

¨  IM, Social Networks, Wiki, Forum, Blogs ¨  Informal communication takes place in SoSo

¨  SoSo complements SE collaborative tools

Two remote sub-teams are located in Denmark and in China.

“Self-organizing” teams.

Scrum used rather rigorously: five Sprints, backlogs, weekly standup meetings,…

Skype, phone, emails, Assembla (issue tracker with file sharing, Wiki, Forum)

The Case

Copenhagen

Beijing

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Ethnographic Empirical Research

¨  Copenhagen (4 months) ¨  Beijing (10 days) ¨  Data Collection ¨  Data Analysis

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Coordination Mechanisms “A coordination mechanism consists of a coordinative protocol imprinted upon a distinct artifact which [...] stipulates and mediates the articulation of cooperative work so as to reduce the complexity of articulation work [...]”

Communicative Genres A communicative genre is characterized “by a socially recognized communicative purpose and a common form”

Analytic tools

. K. Schmidt and C. Simone. Coordination mechanisms: Towards a conceptual foundation of cscw systems design. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1996. J. Yates and W. J. Orlikowski. Genres of organizational communication: A structurational approach to studying communication and media. Academy of management review, 1992.

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Coordination Mechanism 1/3

•  File Sharing •  Minutes Sharing •  Issue Managing System •  Subversion (SVN)

Repository •  Standup Meeting •  Agenda

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Coordination Mechanism 2/3

We, PKU, advise that you, ITU, tell us agenda in advance. In that case, we, PKU, have time to prepare for it. And our meeting will be better. O(∩_∩)O [Wusheng, China]

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Coordination Mechanism 3/3

A written meeting agenda should be uploaded at

Wednesdays in order to accomplish effective virtual

meetings. The author of these should be shifting

between China and Denmark.

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Communicative Genres

•  Work •  Knowledge sharing •  Metawork •  Situated Articulation •  Social talk •  Encouraging Chats

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Example: Minutes Notifier Genre

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Example: Social Talk Genre

Cheng: Denmark is a beautiful country. I will go to Denmark to have a tour if there any chance, To got to know this country Stella: well please come... It is beautiful!! I have several chinese colleagues and friends at work (sushi restaurant)

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Temporal Overview

Usage of Group Instant Messaging Chats

Usage of 1 to 1 Instant Messaging Chats

Usage of Forum and Wiki

CM1 File Sharing CM2 Minutes Sharing CM 3Issue Managing System CM 4 Subversion (SVN) Repository CM 5 Standup Meeting CM 6 Agenda

Challenges Encountered

Language barriers

Technological barriers due to low bandwidth connection

Different professional background

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•  Social Talk Enable Good Cooperation •  Metawork for Establishing Effective

Coordination Mechanisms •  The Role of Social Software

Findings

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Social Talk Enable Good Cooperation

¨  Initially in IM – both group chat and 1 to 1 chat

¨  establish informal relationships ¨  provide a context for the

cooperation ¨  cultural liaisons ¨  it lowered the potential socio-

cultural distance among team members

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Metawork for Establishing Effective Coordination Mechanisms

¨  Thanks to the social talks, the two remote sub-teams established an effective informal channel, where metawork discussions could take place.

¨  This study shows how metawork takes place and how it evolves

¨  High level of metawork in the initial phase ¨  The team succeeded in establishing effective

coordination mechanisms and social protocols

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The Role of Social Software

¨  Central role of SoSo as an informal and flexible channel that supports different kinds of communicative genres.

¨  SoSo complements other collaborative SE tools that provide templates for coordination mechanisms.

¨  Wiki and Forum ¤  persistent repository for the knowledge shared ¤  they serve for situated articulation, that support established coordination

mechanisms

¨  Instant Messaging ¤  glue between other channels

¤  main media for social talk

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Future work

¨  Culture ¤  comparisons with other teams with similar background

¤  appropriate analytic tools for culture

¨  Trust ¤  social chats appear fundamental to support trusting relationships, thus

enabling good work ¤  relating the roles of social talks, metawork and trust

¨  Theoretical concepts ¤  relationship between coordination mechanisms and communicative genres ¤  theoretical framework for analyzing and describing cooperative practices

How Social Software Supports Cooperative Practices in a Globally Distributed Software Project Rosalba Giuffrida rogi@itu.dk Yvonne Dittrich ydi@itu.dk

IT  UNIVER

SITY  OF  CO

PENHA

GEN

THANK YOU J Questions…?