Agile Software Development with Distributed Teams: Agility, Distribution and Trust

Trust among team members is imperative for blending agility with distributed software development. Little is known about how team members who are dispersed across different geographical locations, time zones and cultures can build trust while working together in Agile software development projects. Through a Grounded Theory study that involved 55 participants from 38 different software companies in the USA, India and Australia, we investigate the key concerns of distributed teams in Agile software development. We found that trust among members of a distributed team is important for bridging spatial, temporal and socio-cultural distances in order for them to work together as one team. In this paper, we present techniques for building trust in Agile software development with distributed teams.