Control and Coordination Approaches for Management of Software Development Projects

In the recent past, the Indian information technology industry has been able to grow at double-digit figures, thanks to the burgeoning demand for software services and products in the international market. Some of the Indian software companies have benefited from these changes, as they have been able to provide quality services at competitive prices to their offshore clients. However, these new work arrangements have brought in complexities in managing software projects. Separation of resources in time and space leads to problems in controlling and coordinating these activities. Various formal and informal approaches used for controlling and coordinating the collocated projects need to be applied differently in the case of geographically dispersed projects. Preponderance of electronic mediated communication in place of face-to-face communication necessitates some changes in their application. At the same time, projects with different levels of complexity need different mix of these approaches. This mix also changes with the progress of the project over the software development life cycle. This research studies the different formal and informal approaches that are used to manage the geographically dispersed projects through field studies in four firms. Qualitative research methods will be adopted for conducting this study and analyzing data.