In sync over distance : flexible coordination through communication in geographically distributed software development work

In this dissertation, I examine how the members of a distributed software development team (LC) operating entirely virtually for four and half years developed useful social practices to collaborate across time and space. Based on various communication data from LC, I analyze the communicative structuring of distributed work in members' daily practices. I show that "temporal flexibility," often mentioned as key advantage of virtual organizing, is socially accomplished through "boundary management," as members negotiate different temporal boundaries and learn and adapt to others' temporal patterns. Second, I identify dynamic coordination practices in LC that interweave multiple modes of communication and coordination in evolving work contexts, and demonstrate how these coordination practices facilitate temporal flexibility in LC. Finally, I analyze how members used the asynchronous communication medium of email to coordinate their tasks, using the notion of genre and genre system.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Science, Technology and Society.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Im, Hyun Gyung

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• JoAnne Yates.

• Program in Science, Technology and Society.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/40393

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/40393