Manases Jesus Galindo Bello, Hochschule Fulda, Germany

Software engineering principles are brought into practice by Information Technology companies all around the world. Software can be developed by local teams which members have different cultural backgrounds, as well as by teams distributed across countries. To save costs and be close to markets and customers, companies offshore or outsource the personnel. Although developing software in distributed teams offers multiple benefits, there are also stiff challenges that engineers and managers have to deal with, e.g. communication and collaboration may get affected because of geographic distance, different time zones and distinct cultural backgrounds among team members. If not addressed on time and effectively, these challenges generate misunderstanding and conflict among the team which eventually may impact the projects deadlines and quality of the software. This paper presents the most common software engineering practices, challenges and tools in global teams, as well as practical cases in the industrial and academic realms.

Collaboration, Management, Culture, Conflict, Challenges