How Collaboration Software Enables Globally Distributed Software Development Teams to Become Agile - An Effective Use Perspective

Offshored, distributed teams increasingly use agile software development methodologies. Since agile software development practices were originally developed for co-located teams, distributed teams are required to use tools in order to achieve agility. This study is the first to adopt the lens of effective use theory in order to explore the role of tools in achieving agility, and other favorable project outcomes despite geographic distribution. First, we present Effective Use Theory and contextualize it for outsourced, agile software development projects. After this contextualization of Effective Use Theory, we present our exploratory, longitudinal case study and the four data sources we will use as a basis for our empirical investigation. Then, we develop measures that will enable us to study effective use behaviors empirically for the first time. The paper ends with expected results and implications for literature on IS outsourcing, agile software development, tool use literature, and for managerial practice.

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