Building bridges, burning bridges: the use of boundary objects in agile distributed ISD teams
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Date
2020-01-07
Authors
McCarthy, Stephen
O'Raghallaigh, Paidi
Fitzgerald, Ciara
Adam, Frédéric
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Hawai'i at Manoa
Published Version
Abstract
Boundary objects are physical and abstract artefacts which support team interactions across diverse knowledge domains. Despite their relevancy, research into the effectiveness of boundary objects in agile distributed ISD remains nascent. In this paper, we develop a framework to theorize their effectiveness in generating cohesion within distributed teams. Our in-depth case study finds that their effectiveness is influenced by the nature of the boundary objects themselves but also by team members’ willingness to address differences in contextual factors. We identify three contextual factors - structure, identity, and culture - that are critical to supporting team members crossing knowledge boundaries within distributed teams. Furthermore, findings suggest that while boundary objects can indeed foster team cohesion in agile distributed ISD, there are other less explored aspects to their role. For example, we find that boundary objects can be useful for enabling constructive team conflict.
Description
Keywords
Agile , Boundary objects , Cohesion , Distributed teams , Information systems development
Citation
McCarthy, S., O'Raghallaigh, P., Fitzgerald, C. and Adam, F. (2020) 'Building Bridges, Burning Bridges: The Use of Boundary Objects in Agile Distributed ISD Teams', Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS 2020, Maui, Hawaii, 07-10 January. doi: 10.24251/HICSS.2020.063