Bridging cultural differences: a grounded theory perspective

  • Authors:

  • Siva Dorairaj;James Noble;Petra Malik

  • Affiliations:

  • Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand;Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand;Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 4th India Software Engineering Conference
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

Cultural differences often arise in distributed software development. The impact of cultural differences on distributed teams is under-explored. The lack of knowledge of cultural differences can cause major problems to the distributed teams. We have conducted a Grounded Theory study to uncover the strategies adopted by Agile practitioners to overcome the cultural differences in distributed software development. We interviewed 18 Agile practitioners across 10 software companies in the USA and India over a period of 1.5 years. In this paper, we report that our participants adopt five effective strategies to bridge cultural differences in distributed Agile software development: engendering cultural awareness, understanding cultural differences, sharing work practices, rotating team ambassadors, and managing language barriers.