Title: Formulation and development of a novel framework to overcome communication challenges in agile distributed teams

Authors: Kushal Bundhun; Roopesh Kevin Sungkur

Addresses: Accenture Technology, Ebene, Mauritius ' Department of Software and Information Systems, Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies, University of Mauritius, Mauritius

Abstract: Nowadays, many organisations have combined agile methodology with global software development due to the numerous benefits they offer such as faster time to market, cheaper and skilled labour, 24-hour development and better project control. However, agile methods prefer team members to be co-located to promote effective communication between team members and this lack of face-to-face communication in a distributed setting result in various communication challenges due to distance, time and cultural differences. This research proposes a framework to overcome communication challenges such as language barriers, time-zone differences and trust issues. A mixed-method research choice combining both qualitative and quantitative design was opted for this research where for the initial stage of the study, a systematic literature review (SLR) was performed. The analysis of the survey data collected demonstrated that the majority of respondents have rated the framework components as effective, hence making the latter viable for adoption by distributed agile projects.

Keywords: agile software development; communication challenges; distributed teams; communication framework.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISCM.2022.127060

International Journal of Information Systems and Change Management, 2022 Vol.13 No.1, pp.45 - 72

Received: 26 Apr 2021
Received in revised form: 07 May 2022
Accepted: 08 May 2022
Published online: 21 Nov 2022 *

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