Patterns for global development: how to build one global team?

Abstract

Global Development has become a mainstream trend. Many companies today conduct development projects in teams which are distributed across sites and countries. While Global Development brings several advantages such as proximity to markets and customers, access to local talent and cost competitiveness, it also introduces new challenges: Geographic distance, cultural differences and different time zones make communication much more difficult and inefficient. One of the main problems in Global Development is the impact of distribution on team cohesion. To create a trust relationship among team members becomes more important than ever. In this paper, we present a collection of patterns that can help to build one global team and to improve the effectiveness of communication and collaboration in Global Development projects.