Causal Analysis of Factors Governing Collaboration in Global Software Development Teams

Globally distributed software development (GSD) is increasing in popularity in industry. However, as it is coupled with challenges of distance, time, and culture, it increases the importance of identifying and understanding the specific factors that enable and hinder GSD teams. This paper presents the approach and preliminary findings from an exploratory study of the enabling and inhibiting factors that affected several globally distributed projects in a large commercial organization. Our quantitative analysis includes grouping these factors to reduce the dimensional complexity, studying their underlying causal relationships, and identifying the most influential factors using factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The paper concludes by presenting preliminary findings, limitations, and directions for future work.