Coordination and Control Coordination: act of integrating each task with each organizational unit, so that unit contributes to the overall objective Control: adhering to goals, policies, standards or quality levels –formal: budget, guidelines, standards –informal: peer pressure Communication: mediating factor

Communication Communication: exchange of complete and unambiguous information Two communication dimensions: –Timeliness –Content Project coordination and control strongly depend on richness and speed of communication channels Formal & informal communication critical for project success Intra-unit communication – same place, same time

On verbal and nonverbal communication Words we say is just 7% of content we communicate to the person we are talking to face-to-face Other content is provided by facial expressions, tone of voice, voice inflections, gestures …

Virtual team communication Affected by both distance and time difference factors Distance affects communication among different unit members by: –Slowing down communication speed (i.e. response time) – timeliness –Reducing amount of information exchanged - content –Drastically reducing informal (corridor) communication Time difference reduces the “window of opportunity” for communication among distant units Communication problems arise at distances above 30 m from door-to-door (long corridors) !

Technology-based communication solutions Three main groups of technology-based communication solutions: –synchronous: telephone conferences, video conferences –Near-synchronous: messengers … –asynchronous: , voice mail, newsgroups, web pages …

Effectiveness of communication methods

Face-to-face communication Content rich real-time communication Quick resolution of ambiguities In virtual teams this kind of communication is expensive as it involves travel from one unit to another (both time & cost) Should be part of the project’s kickoff, later on in project on a regular basis Only way of creating informal (social) contacts between team members

Postal mail Obsolete mean of communication ? Low timeliness and content properties Unavoidable if shipping documentation / hardware It is still much cheaper to send very large amounts of data using postal mail than via network !!!

Telephone conferences Next-best communication method Real-time interaction Loses some of the communication content (nonverbal communication) Teleconferences used for regular meetings, phone calls for resolving current issues No written trail of communication VoIP – reduces communication costs Problem: work interruptions

Video conferences Aims to completely replace face-to-face communication Still impose too high technical demands for long-distance communication (required bandwidth and QoS) Turn-based communication Need more preparation than telephone conferences !

Easy, cheap yet relatively rich means of communication Mailing lists for multiple recipients, grouping according to project roles Problems: timeliness, amount of received e- mail, security

Other tools Messengers for on-line collaboration (discussions, whiteboards, assistance …) Newsgroups/forums for off-line discussions Web for relatively static information – team organization, team member contact information, project status, documentation …

Security Infrastructure level: –Dedicated closed networks (LANs, WANs) –Tunneling traffic through Internet (VPNs) Application level: –Mail encryption (PGP …) –Digital signatures –HTTPS for web

Other ways of alleviating c&c problems Technology helps us to reduce communication problems caused by location/time distance, but cannot remove them completely If we cannot gain more by using technology, can we try to use it less ?

Reducing collaboration Lower the need to coordinate = smaller the communication problems ! Addressed by virtual team task allocation Follows the principle of OO design: –Loose unit (collaboration) coupling –Strong unit (class) cohesion

Collaboration and Task Complexity Structured tasks: well-defined, easy-to-use methods and unambiguous outcomes –Example: sw port from Windows to Linux –Reduced need for collaboration Unstructured tasks: iterative and/or unclear solutions –Example: sw design based on other unit’s analysis results, follow-the-sun, R&D –Results in high demand for collaboration between units

Software task maturity function

Life-cycle effort Amount of unit’s involvement in the product’s life-cycle Relationship between the need of coordination and life-cycle effort not linear !

Coordination – life-cycle effort