Researching Collaborative Technologies in Global Virtual Teams: Empirical Studies from an Interpretive Perspective

Researching global software engineering teams (GSETs), presents several phenomena of interest, and raises several issues relating to choice of method. Given the important function of both time and space when studying GSETs in field settings, ‘snapshot’ research methods (such as the use of questionnaires, and even interviews), tend to fall short in capturing some of the innate complexities. Researchers from the Information Systems discipline have recommended the use of such research methods as qualitative case studies and action research, but for software engineering researchers such methods appear uncommon. Action Research in particular, where the researcher is an active participant and even change agent challenges the notion of ‘objective’ science. This paper focuses on the design and conduct of empirical software engineering research from an interpretive viewpoint, and demonstrates its application to theory development in field studies within global virtual team contexts. The paper argues for a wider set of perspectives and an extension of the repertoire for researching the complex, dynamic and essentially human phenomena represented by GSETs.