Along with globalization, offshoring strategy has been attractive to more and more IT companies and regarded as an industry changer as tremendous benefits can be enabled from this strategy. However, considering the potential risks and uncertainties, offshoring can also be risky and even lead to failure or huge loss because of the inefficiency and obstacles in collaboration among offshoring teams. To be able to guarantee better collaboration for IT offshoring, both related theories about offshoring and results from the empirical study have been combined and analyzed. As for the methodology applied in the study, a case company Sigma IT & Management is mainly investigated for phenomenon exploration as this company has a long-term IT offshoring strategic partner in Ukraine. Qualitative data is valued greatly in obtaining a deeper knowledge of various opinions and views from the representatives out of the offshoring team. As an exploratory-interpretive study, it primarily uses interviews with text analysis for results generation. The conclusion of this study to IT offshoring collaboration is twofold. Firstly from the functional perspective, it fills the shortage of supportive checklist for project managers to guarantee a better offshoring collaboration, as well as the proper methods in evaluating interaction barriers among offshoring teams. Secondly from the individual perspective, this thesis study is concluded with a table of success factors to improve the bi-direction communication and the collaboration efficiency for offshoring teams.

A number of significant challenges confront effective communication in partially distributed conceptual design teams (PDCDTs), mainly due to the ill-defined and open nature of conceptual design tasks and their associated solution spaces. In contrast to co-located team members who interact face-to-face, communication difficulties among PDCDTs can intensify as a result of the physical separation of team members and their heavy reliance on communication technologies to achieve desired outcomes. Despite advances in these technologies, the ability to convey contextual and paralinguistic cues is still more limited between distant partners in comparison to face-to-face interactions. Thus, team members often experience challenges in establishing and maintaining shared understanding. In addition, partially distributed teams are more vulnerable to in-group dynamics than fully distributed or fully co-located teams. There have been substantial theoretical advances in the field of computer-mediated communication (CMC) that seek to address these challenges. Although CMC theories are hypothetically convincing and generally accepted, actual empirical findings are to some extent either unconvincing or contradictory. Moreover, questions remain about whether CMC theories can hold up in the context of non-equivalent communication technologies. The proliferation of various communication devices (e.g., smart phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops)–not to mention the growing corporate use of fully immersive telepresence technologies–means that a variety of combinations of communication devices can be used. To date, however, the majority of CMC studies have focused on the use of equivalent communication technologies (e.g., laptop to laptop). Given these practical challenges and research gaps, the overall objective of this study was to investigate how to improve shared understanding in PDCDTs. The study encompassed four distinct research threads. Study 1 conceptualized shared understanding in PDCDTs. From Study 1, factors associated with shared understanding were identified, and an input-process-output (IPO) model of shared understanding was developed. Study 2 examined the intra- and inter-sub-group communication patterns among PDCDTs. From Study 2, three different analytical approaches for exploring communication patterns were used to elucidate valuable insights into how interactions within and across sub-groups change with design tasks, as well as how individual roles and interpersonal dynamics affect those interactions. Study 3 utilized the outcomes from Study 1 (IPO model of shared understanding) to develop and validate an instrument to measure shared understanding. Lastly, Study 4 examined how different combinations of non-equivalent communication technologies impacted shared understanding in PDCDTs by using the shared understanding instrument developed from Study 3. Specifically, four types of communication technology conditions were utilized: (1) telepresence to telepresence (two different sizes), (2) telepresence to laptops, (3) telepresence to mobile devices, and (4) laptops to mobile devices. The findings revealed significant impacts of communication technologies on co-located and distant shared understanding, as well as differences between co-located and distant shared understanding for each communication technology condition. In addition, the impacts of shared understanding on different communication technology user groups were identified. Based on these findings, a number of communication technology recommendations, as well as managerial intervention strategies to operate successful PDCDTs, were developed. / Ph. D.

Diplomová práce se zaměřuje na zefektivnění procesu řízení ve vývoji softwaru, a to integrováním agilní metodiky Scrum do projektu. Navrhnuté řešení obsahuje stěžejní principy a součásti metodologie a jejich konkrétní doporučenou aplikaci v projekte ABC v soulade s jeho specifikami.

This study aims to recognize how virtual teams should be coordinated and led in organizations that operate at multiple sites. To fulfill the purpose of the study, a literature review on previous research on virtual teams was implemented. Further, a qualitative study including interviews with leaders at different levels at Ericsson was conducted to gain empirical data on how leadership in virtual teams works. The interviews were semi-structured with the purpose of not directing the leaders towards only bringing up the challenges that emerged in the literature review but to also bring up new perspectives. The major challenges that virtual teams face, thus challenges that the leaders must somehow address, can be divided into three areas: communication, coordination and location. Concerning communication, it is important that leaders of virtual teams set the means for communications, define ground rules and make sure that the right kind of communication is used for the right purpose. Further, it is important to communicate more often than if the team would have been co-located and actively try to build trust and cohesion within the team by being transparent and honest. To meet face to face with the team members, especially in the beginning when the team is created, is important both for understanding (virtual communication becomes easier afterward) and for the building of trust and cohesion. In the area coordination it is important for the leader to clearly define the roles of each team member and how the roles as well as the team efforts contribute to a larger picture. There is no perfect distribution that is applicable to all virtual teams, each team must find their balance concerning how many team members that should be positioned at each site. In general, to push responsibilities down in the hierarchy is a suitable role structure for virtual teams. The location area includes challenges such as different languages, cultures and collaboration across different time zones. It is important to have an operative language that all team members understand and master. When creating a new team, it is important that the leader or the person creating it, is aware of how cultural differences impact, so that the challenges can be addressed properly, and the benefits of diversity as well as the expanded labor pool, can be utilized. Working across different time zones brings benefits such as more hours of the day can be used, but it also includes challenges, such as limited real-time communication. Thus, the optimal time overlap is difficult to define, but generally, leaders prefer involving fewer time zones and large time overlaps.