Communication in firm-internal global software development with China

Abstract

Globally distributed software development projects are on the rise. However, 69% of cross-regional projects fail completely or partially, because of lack of cross-cultural understanding. This paper presents a qualitative study of the impact of communication on Global Software Development (GSD) within firms due to cultural differences. In particular, we provide a model of problems and solutions related to communication of German/Chinese and American/Chinese collaborations in GSD. The model was derived using grounded theory to study six globally distributed software development projects. The results may not only help companies understand cultural problems, but also help them overcome these problems. To this end, we discuss the solutions adopted by the multinational software companies that we studied.

Keywords

Global software development, globally distributed software development, collaboration with China communication, trust

Reference

Bilal Zaghloul, Dirk Riehle, Minghui Zhou. “Communication in Firm-Internal Global Software Development with China.” In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Software Business (ICSOB 2015). Springer Verlag. Page 132-138.