Methods and Tools for Collaboration in GSE Environments

As researchers and practitioners gain more experience with global software engineering (GSE), we are beginning to move from individual tools and practices that help with particular aspects of GSE toward integrated solutions that attempt to cover the full range of needs of distributed projects. The fundamental GSE problem is that collocated projects make very effective use of coordination mechanisms and communication channels that are not available or effective for distributed teams [1] [2]. The fact that these mechanisms often operate so naturally and invisibly within collocated projects has made adjusting to GSE all the harder, since we tend to underestimate the difficulties and to be unsure about what additional collaboration tools GSE projects require.