Does Distance Still Matter? Revisiting Collaborative Distributed Software Design

Global software engineering requires supporting distributed collaboration for most software development activities. However, geographical distance challenges effective collaboration. Nowadays, we’re witnessing significant advances in communication and collaboration technologies. So, researchers explored whether these advances enable effective remote collaboration. To that end, they studied the design activities of both colocated and distributed professional software designers. The findings are based on analysis of video recordings of design sessions and questionnaires. The researchers found that despite comprehensive technological improvements, distance still matters. To ensure effective distributed software design, designers must consider extra (nontechnical) details. This article is part of a theme issue on collaborative modeling.