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