Fatma Cemile Serce

Structural factors that affect global software development learning team performance

A team performance model provided an organizing framework for studying multi-cultural distributed learning teams. Structural equation modeling was used to test for relationships among individual, cultural and attitudes about collaborative work factors and team performance. The paper describes this model and its theoretical basis and reports on results from two pilot projects involving 152 students from the US, Panama, UK, and Turkey. While the model shows satisfactory fit, the results suggest that other factors may also influence how well students work together on global software projects. Future research, followed by model development, should incorporate these factors to capture the complexity of the educational and training environments.

The temporal communication behaviors of global software development student teams

This paper examines the global software development process by using content analysis techniques, as described in an earlier study (Serce et al., 2011), to determine time-variant patterns of communication behaviors among student teams engaged in a global software development project. Data gathered from two software development projects involving students in the US, Panama, and Turkey were used to determine how globally distributed team behavior is temporally patterned in complex ways. A formal, quantitative methodology for time variant analysis of the transcripts of global software student teams based on content analysis is established. Results from the analysis suggest a positive correlation between a teams temporal communication patterns and project outcomes as well as a relationship between variations in communication behaviors and different phases of the software development cycle. The research also found that the temporal variations in communication behaviors between software phases were similar for the two projects. Such findings are intended to strengthen the case for developing new temporal measures for analyzing groups and teams.

Exploring Collaboration Patterns among Global Software Development Teams

This study examines communication behaviors in global software student teams. The authors of the paper characterize the types of communication behaviors that occur when student teams are engaged in a software development project. The authors present findings from a one-semester study that examined factors contributing to successful distributed programming interactions among students enrolled at the University of Atilim (Turkey), Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá, University of North Texas, and Middlesex University (UK). Using content and cluster analyses techniques, we identified distinct patterns of collaboration and examined how these patterns were associated with task, culture, GPA, and performance of collaborative teams. Our results suggest that communication patterns among global software learners may be related to task type, culture and GPA. It is hoped that these findings will lead to the development of new strategies for improving communication among global software teams.

A Comparison of Team Performance Measures for Global Software Development Student Teams

One of the most difficult tasks for global software development researchers is quantifying the performance of groups and students who participate in these distributed projects. There has been much debate about which factors better correlate with team performance and which best describe a successful team. The purpose of this paper is to compare the different approaches that have been used to evaluate the performance of global software learners and show how these techniques can affect research results. Using data from student groups engaged in global software development projects for the past year, the authors apply a number of different assessment methods and show their effects on different performance indicators. Our study suggests that the selection of appropriate measures to evaluate team performance can dramatically affect how one identifies successful teams.

Global teams: futuristic models of collaborative work for today's software development industry.

This paper emphasises the importance of global teams in the field of software development. The paper presents an approach for setting up pilot studies simulating those key features that make global software development teams particularly attractive to exploit and challenging to manage. The underlying research is supported by a research project funded by the US National Science Foundation with the participation of universities from US, Turkey, Panama and the UK. The paper provides detailed guidelines for setting up simulations resembling globally dispersed software development teams and discusses preliminary data of two pilot studies with involving collaboration between teams residing in the US and the UK. Key concerns of this research are those factors affecting collaborative work when global teams are involved. Such factors include differences caused by distance, culture, time zones and technology.

The Challenges of Teaching Students How to Work in Global Software Teams

This paper describes a multi-year project that is examining ways to improve global software learning teams. Students from the University of North Texas, Middlesex, University of Atilim, Middle East Technical University, and Universidad Tecnologica de Panama are teamed and asked to collaborate on a number of different software projects. The paper explains the overall goals for the research project; it describes the student teams and their various assignments; and it presents results from data gathered from the group programming tasks. The findings are presented, and some recommendations for teaching global software development are provided.

Interaction patterns among global software development learning teams

This paper describes a study of the impact of communication behaviors on the performance of global software teams. Using a content analysis technique developed by [10], the researchers first characterized the asynchronous communications among student teams in Panama, Turkey and the US as they worked to complete a global software development project. Cluster analysis was then used to identify groups with similar communication patterns, which is defined as the proportion of time spent on each of the behaviors. Results suggest that particular patterns of communication behaviors are associated with higher performance. More specifically, it appears that communications related to the “contributing” category seem to have the strongest relationship to high performance.

Exploring the communication behaviour among global software development learners

This study examines communication behaviours in global software learning teams. Using a coding scheme developed in previous research (Curtis and Lawson, 2001), the paper characterises communication behaviours of students engaged in a software development project. The paper reports the results of two pilot projects done with students in USA, England, Turkey and Panama. Through content analysis we identify distinct patterns of interactions and examine how these patterns are associated with task, culture, or performance. Our results suggest that communication patterns among global software learners may be related to task type, culture and levels of performance.

Strategies and guidelines for building effective distributed learning teams in higher education

The paper describes the strategies and guidelines for building effective global student teams based on the experiences obtained from six global software development projects involving 438 students from the universities in the US, Panama, UK, and Turkey. According to the findings obtained from these projects, the factors affecting online collaboration and the problems faced during management of projects are given in the paper. It is hoped that these findings will help to instructors to design and manage globally distributed student teams. The paper also provides guidelines for students to become a good team player.

Intelligent learning system for online learning

The paper presents an Adaptive Intelligent Learning System (AILS) designed to be used with any Learning Management System (LMS). The adaptiveness provides uniquely identifying and monitoring the learners learning process according to the learners profile. AILS has been implemented as a multi-agent system. The agents were developed as JADE agents. The paper presents the learning model, system components, agent behavior in learner scenarios, the ontologies used in agent communications, and the adaptive strategies. The sample application of the AILS to a dummy LMS is also given.