Finding a common language for global software projects

A comunicação eficaz (ou ineficaz) é tida como um dos principais factores de sucesso em projectos de software. Neste artigo, publicado no prestigiado Cutter IT Journal (editado por Edward Yourdon), Alexandre Rodrigues apresenta as vantagens da utilização da modelação dinâmica (qualitativa e quantitativa por simulação), no apoio ao processo de comunicação.

The rapid globalization of the world economy is forcing companies to focus their business on international market-segments. In order to reach their global target groups, many projects are now implemented and managed by international teams, thus gathering people from different cultural backgrounds. Effective cooperation among these teams is vital to success. In the software industry, technical teams in the US and EU are increasingly incorporating programmers from other parts of the world, often through geographically dispersed groups. Technology has been helping organizations to overcome communication barriers through multimedia-based systems for cooperative work. However, at the management level cultural differences probably play the more significant influence: language, life rhythms, perception of time urgency, values and codes of conduct, all may differ. Project management is primarily based on effective communication and negotiation among the parties involved in a project: the Client, the contractor, the sub-contractors, and the various technical and management sub-teams. Misinterpretation of cultural differences can easily jeopardize mutual trust, which is essential for cooperation. However, procedures to cope with this problem on a more systematic basis have not been developed yet. A culturally independent common language for managers to share their personal views would be most valuable. System Dynamics business modeling (SD) can help filling this gap. An SD model represents how managers perceive their business processes, through intuitive cause-and-effect diagrams. Once simulated, numeric results and dynamic patterns of behavior provide insight and forecasts. These models capture important dynamic issues like feedback, human perceptions and time-delays. In this paper I describe how SD can help organizations to achieve effective communication and negotiation within a global software project environment. Two practical examples of application in a large-scale international software project are discussed.

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