Co-Presence not Communication: How ICT's Really Enable Software Services Offshoring

The successful execution of complex interdependent work in a distributed fashion - such as offshore software development - is an anomaly, given the well known inadequacies of ICT mediated communication vis-a-vis face to face communication. In this paper, we draw on qualitative data from 60 distributed and collocated software services delivery projects to understand how ICT's are actually used in distributed software development. We find that in these projects, ICT based tools are typically not used as channels of direct communication between locations. Instead ICT tools are used to avoid the need for direct communication by creating common ground across locations and thereby enabling tacit coordination.