Managing Flow Dependencies: The "Missing Link" in Co-ordinating Distributed Teams in Large-Scale Development Projects

Abstract

Distributed team members working in large-scale development projects would benefit from effective process support for co-ordinating their activities with the work of other team members. However, many of the techniques used to model and enact processes have a "missing link" as they do not explicitly consider the co-ordination activities needed to manage flow dependencies that arise from the fragmentation of the work. This can result in unnecessary rework and delays if informal and ad-hoc coordination is used to manage transitions between activities. We propose using explicit coordination processes to manage flow dependencies which address coordination problems associated with product development workflows.