Coordinating Global Software Development Activities: Requisite Variety in Information Systems as a Dependent Variable

In this paper, I explain how globally-distributed software development subunits can coordinate their activities with information systems (IS). The basis of this explanation lies in the contemporary proliferation of global software development (GSD) activities which suggests an unexplained reality: that organizations practicing GSD are somehow regulating their IS to cope with increasing and varied uncertainties. Through an empirical example of an organization’s subunit’s regulating and coping, I make the case that requisite variety in a subunit’s information systems is a dependent variable for managing uncertainties leading to optimal coordination. In this example, I show varied uncertainties that faced the subunit; and I explain how variety in its information system was requisite for managing the uncertainties satisfactorily. Based on these explanations, I suggest four characteristics of variety in IS that will be requisite for managing uncertainties in GSD – developers’ agility, developers’ continuity and travelling, high frequency of communications, and varied communication modes and technologies.