Inter-team communication in large-scale co-located software engineering: a case study

Communication Software engineering Distance Case study Agile

Authors: Elizabeth Bjarnason and Baldvin Gislason Bern and Linda Svedberg

Year: 2022

Published in: Empirical Software Engineering.

Read me: DOI: 10.1007/s10664-021-10027-z.

Abstract: Large-scale software engineering is a collaborative effort where teams need to communicate to develop software products. Managers face the challenge of how to organise work to facilitate necessary communication between teams and individuals. This includes a range of decisions from distributing work over teams located in multiple buildings and sites, through work processes and tools for coordinating work, to softer issues including ensuring well-functioning teams. In this case study, we focus on inter-team communication by considering geographical, cognitive and psychological distances between teams, and factors and strategies that can affect this communication. Data was collected for ten test teams within a large development organisation, in two main phases: (1) measuring cognitive and psychological distance between teams using interactive posters, and (2) five focus group sessions where the obtained distance measurements were discussed. We present ten factors and five strategies, and how these relate to inter-team communication. We see three types of arenas that facilitate inter-team communication, namely physical, virtual and organisational arenas. Our findings can support managers in assessing and improving communication within large development organisations. In addition, the findings can provide insights into factors that may explain the challenges of scaling development organisations, in particular agile organisations that place a large emphasis on direct communication over written documentation.

Bibtex (copy):

@article{Bjarnason2022,
    doi = {10.1007/s10664-021-10027-z},
    url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-021-10027-z},
    year = {2022},
    month = jan,
    publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media {LLC}},
    volume = {27},
    number = {2},
    author = {Elizabeth Bjarnason and Baldvin Gislason Bern and Linda Svedberg},
    title = {Inter-team communication in large-scale co-located software engineering: a case study},
    journal = {Empirical Software Engineering}
}

Annotation

By Jeffrey Bouman, Katja Schmahl, Thijs Raymakers. 🪧Slides.

In this case study, a rapidly growing software engineering company has looked into the effects of cognitive and psychological distances between different teams and how this relates to the communication between the teams. Since inter-team communication is an important success factor in enabling teams to work autonomously and responsibly and handle problems as they arise, this research can help management of large software organisations. These distances were determined using self-ratings for 185 employees in ten focus groups, then they were analysed in discussions with focus groups. Ten factors that influence these distances were identified, in four categories: awareness of others, frequency and extent of interaction between teams, team’s attitude towards other teams and team characteristics. Interaction frequency and extent was rated most important, whereas awareness of others was believed to have the least impact on collaboration and communication by the teams.

From the discussion on the distance data, five strategies were identified that can be used by software managers to improve inter-team communication. These strategies are ‘Awareness of cognitive distance’, ‘Physical meeting points and arenas’, ‘Job and office rotation’, ‘Key people’ and ‘Tool support for interaction’. The most important advice according to the researchers to use for this is creation of three types of arenas: physical, virtual and organisational. Physical arenas are vital for decreasing physical distance and should facilitate both planned and spontaneous meetings. Virtual arenas complement direct communication and make it easier for distant teams to communicate. This should be done using a common set of tools. Organisational arenas are the organisation of employees in units and teams. Here, team characteristics and attitude to other teams should be taken into consideration.

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