Communication Media for Distributed Software Design

As virtual software projects are becoming more popular, it is also more common for software design, one of the key activities in software development process, to be conducted in the distributed context. Previous research has shown that communication media had an impact on the development of shared-understanding among team members in virtual teams. However, how communication media influences the development of shared-understanding among team members in software design, an activity where communication among team members are intense and complicated, is not well-understood. Therefore, within the scope of this study, we would like to conduct a case study to examine how virtual software development teams use communication media in their software design activities and how their usage influence their sharedunderstanding of the user requirements and design solutions. The outcome of the study is expected to validate the Media Synchronicity Theory in the distributed software design context as well as informing practitioners of the appropriate communication media usage for conducting distributed software design.