A-M Søderberg in new research project

The project "Next Generation Technology for Global Software Development. Understanding and Improving Global Software Development Practices and Tools' (NxG ^GSD) has received DKK 18 million from the research program of strategic growth technologies. The five-year project will be undertaken in close cooperation between researchers from humanities, social sciences and technological sciences working at Copenhagen Business School, the IT University of Copenhagen and Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, one of India's most prestigious business schools. In addition, three companies are industrial partners in this project 1) the Danish NNIT, which has development centers in China, the Philippines and the Czech Republic 2) the Indian TATA Consulting Services, which is a big global player and employs 550 ICT consultants in Denmark, and 3) the Danish IT company, TEO, a 'born global' company with development centers in Pakistan and Malaysia.

Anne-Marie Søderberg is involved in the NxG ^ GSD project as main responsible for the ethnographic studies of communication, culture and collaboration in global software development teams, while Professor Jakob Bardram, ITU, is director of the research project, which includes 5 senior researchers, 4 post docs and 6 PhD students.

The project's focal point:

ICT companies and organizations are increasingly operating globally. Danish firms' competitiveness in software development is thus based on - and increasingly becomes dependent on - a well functioning global cooperation. Today, software development is largely based on outsourcing, but the companies are in need to establish a stronger global collaboration between development teams across time zones, locations and cultures. Important prerequisites for global software development are on the one hand the development of integrated IT tools and on the other hand, a deeper understanding of the cultural and organizational differences.

In the NxG^GDS project, researchers and industrial partners will jointly explore global collaboration in software development and create knowledge, technologies and tools that can effectively bridge the perceived differences and improve the Danish ICT companies’ competitiveness in the global market. The project's starting point is that cultural diversity is a cornerstone of innovation, if you are able to utilize and appreciate diversity as a resource for collaboration in technology development.

Contact: Anne-Marie Søderberg