MIS 648 Presentation Notes:
Lecture 12
Meeting the Challenges of
Developing Systems
Internationally
MIS 648 Lecture 12
1
AGENDA




Introduction to the lecture
Goal of the Lecture
Global Software Teams, revisited
Culture and IS Development Decisions
(Heales, et al.)
MIS 648 Lecture 12
2
Basic Issues
 Software development is complicated by
being dispersed across national
boundaries
 Projects are driven by economics,
strategy and management that produce
global teams
 Technology both drives as well as
enables global team practice
MIS 648 Lecture 12
3
What Makes These Teams SO
Hard to Manage?
 Is it something about IT?

Volatile, complicated, culturally specific?
 Is it something about IT people?

Challenge oriented, uncommunicative,
mobile, unconnected to firm?
 Is it something about IT’s role in
organizations?

Unclear, underresourced, unrepresented,
not included in planning, high stress?
MIS 648 Lecture 12
4
Our Basic Model of IT Project
Management Success
Information
Technology
Worker
Characteristics
Information
Technology
Work Env’t
Characteristics
Information
Technology
Task
Characteristics
Information
Technology
Characteristics
IT Project Outcomes
Information
Technology
Org’l
Characteristics
MIS 648 Lecture 12
5
Bad Things






Team cannot
function; software
cannot
be produced
All aspects
of team
at all become
production
Quality isUpper
hard to
uncertain.
guarantee when
management/client
team
lose trust
in isn’t
team
functioning
Team
doesn’t have
coherently
any
long-term
Team disintegrates
Team management loses control
Team produces awful products presence and hence
cannot maintain
Team cannot sustain products
products
Team creates sustaining problems
Product produces
Team destroys client
problems “forever”
Product or project experience is
so bad that client cannot
MIS
648 Lecture 12
function
or “odor” of project
experience lingers
beyond project
6
Push-Pull
 Forces Countering
Global Teamwork



Mostly due to
distance
Also culture
Result makes it
harder to manage
team, ensure quality,
keep to design
promises
 Forces Empowering
Global Teamwork



MIS 648 Lecture 12
Mostly assisted by
technology
Also good
management
practice on a global
basis
Leadership is
important
7
Global Software Teams
Cohesion
`
Source: Erran Carnel: Global
Software Teams: A Framework
for Managerial Problems and
Solutions, 2002.
MIS 648 Lecture 12
8
Group Life Cycle Revisited
Group Effectiveness
Norming
Storming
Forming
Developing and
delivering software
Working out the
development rules,
refining them
Performing
Staffing, instructing
the group
Time, Investment
MIS 648 Lecture 12
Negotiating who
does what, how,
when
9
Global Software Teams -Advice
Encourage lateral communication and coordination
Be more formal, yet more informal, too
Give everyone a 360o view
Establish trust early in the project and foster it throughout
Establish a team memory
Be aware of culture and language
Items in red are especially important in
global software teams
MIS 648 Lecture 12
10
Global Software Teams –
Critique of Advice
 Communication Structure techniques
tend to be labor intensive and expensive
where technology is involved
 Formal/informal is important, but very
difficult to do in practice
 360-degree view is OK, but events move
faster than your planning and intentions.
MIS 648 Lecture 12
11
Global Software Teams –
Critique of Advice - 2
 Trust is hard to build, especially across
cultures, and requires personal
commitment, travel, presence, risk
sharing
 Team memory is good idea
 Culture is a real problem and not easily
dismissed or taken into account.
MIS 648 Lecture 12
12
Now, Add in Culture
 Global software development teams are
generally cross-cultural
 This includes offshoring activities, too (see
next lectures)
 Globalization is only exacerbating potential
and actual problems.
 Heales, et al examine the effects of national
culture on IS development decisions rather
than on development itself.
MIS 648 Lecture 12
13
Culture in this Research
 Organizational culture affects
organizational decisions
 National culture affects organizational
culture.
 Hofstede is abandoned for GLOBE
(which is based on Hofstede) because of
vagueness problems but does not
address the stereotyping problems.
MIS 648 Lecture 12
14
These two
The GLOBE Dimensions
meet some of









the problems
with
Individualism
Power Distance (=Hofstede)
Uncertainty Avoidance (=Hofstede)
Institutional Collectivism (cf. Individ’ism)
Family Collectivism (cf. Individ’ism)
These two
some
Humane Orientation (cf. Masculinity) meet
of the
problems
Performance Orientation
with
Future Orientation (=later Hofstede) Masculinity
Gender Egalitarianism (cf. Masculinity)
Assertiveness (=Masculinity)
MIS 648 Lecture 12
15
Adaptive Maintenance Changes
 Research looks at decision making with
regard to evolution of system in terms of
either enhancement (addition,
improvement) or redevelopment
(replacement)
 Because culture affects decision making,
it should also affect adaptive
maintenance decision making as well as
the level at which decision making is
performed.
MIS 648 Lecture 12
16
The Basic Model
Executive
Level
Decision
Issue
Resolution
Process
PDistance
UAvoidance
FutureOrient
InstitutColl’m
FamilyColl’m
HumaneOrien
PerfomOrien
GenderEgal
Assert
Enhancement
Decision
Redevelopment
Decison
All influences are +
unless otherwise noted.
MIS 648 Lecture 12
17
Research Method
 Data on 1238 projects worldwide from
2000 was used; 421 were eliminated
because not all GLOBE dimensions
were available.
 N=817
 Used “What is” rather than “what should
be” indicators of the GLOBE form
 It appears that the bulk of the data
comes from English-speaking countries.
MIS 648 Lecture 12
18
Analysis
 Stepwise multiple regression was used
 Few of the relationships were found to
be strong
 There was significant correlation of
dimensions
MIS 648 Lecture 12
19
The Results
Executive
Level
Decision
Issue
Resolution
Process
PDistance
UAvoidance
FutureOrient
InstitutColl’m
FamilyColl’m
HumaneOrien
PerfomOrien
GenderEgal
Assert
Enhancement
Decision
Redevelopment
Decison
All influences are +
unless otherwise noted.
MIS 648 Lecture 12
20
The Results
Executive
Level
Decision
Issue
Resolution
Process
FutureOrient
GenderEgal
Assert
InstitutColl’m
Enhancement
Decision
Redevelopment
Decison
FO<US: Italy
GE<US: India
AS<US: Japan
IC<US: Italy
MIS 648 Lecture 12
21
So What?
 How does this differ from how any team
functions in today’s globalized economy?
 What does the task add to the situation?
 What does IT culture add to the
situation?
 What does the work environment add to
the situation?
MIS 648 Lecture 12
22