Abstract
Virtual teams, with a high level of interdependence
and cooperation among team members, are one of the building
blocks of successful global software organizations. Shared team
knowledge is vital for effective collaboration in virtual teams.
Hence, it makes sense for organizations to put in place efforts to
ensure that teams have a sufficient level of shared knowledge. A
successful agile virtual team needs to have shared knowledge on
the tasks and how to do them, who knows what in the team, the
development process, and the goals of the team. While shared
knowledge helps on communication and collaboration, virtual
teams meet several challenges in the form of values and norms,
lack of face-to-face communication, time-zone differences, and
difficulties in building and maintaining trust. We describe and
discuss how a framework for establishing shared knowledge was
applied to a global virtual agile team in a Product Centre at DNV
GL – an international provider of software for a safer, smarter
and greener future in the energy, process and maritime
industries. The whole group of 22 met face to face once a year,
and we describe how they in one such team gathering worked on
creating shared understanding about the task, the team, the
process and goals of the virtual team.
and cooperation among team members, are one of the building
blocks of successful global software organizations. Shared team
knowledge is vital for effective collaboration in virtual teams.
Hence, it makes sense for organizations to put in place efforts to
ensure that teams have a sufficient level of shared knowledge. A
successful agile virtual team needs to have shared knowledge on
the tasks and how to do them, who knows what in the team, the
development process, and the goals of the team. While shared
knowledge helps on communication and collaboration, virtual
teams meet several challenges in the form of values and norms,
lack of face-to-face communication, time-zone differences, and
difficulties in building and maintaining trust. We describe and
discuss how a framework for establishing shared knowledge was
applied to a global virtual agile team in a Product Centre at DNV
GL – an international provider of software for a safer, smarter
and greener future in the energy, process and maritime
industries. The whole group of 22 met face to face once a year,
and we describe how they in one such team gathering worked on
creating shared understanding about the task, the team, the
process and goals of the virtual team.
