Richard Egan | Center for Building Knowledge / NJIT (original) (raw)

Papers by Richard Egan

2006 IEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE'06), 2006

Global software development has been found to be a difficult undertaking, in particular, when mem... more Global software development has been found to be a difficult undertaking, in particular, when members of a single team are not co-located. Studies have looked at the impact of different cultural backgrounds, communication structures and temporal distance on the team's effectiveness. This research proposes to examine the impact of culturally based perceptions of time. A gap analysis is proposed to carry out this examination. The gap that will be measured is the gap between time-based attitudes and behavior in team unit A and team unit B where units A and B are part of the same team but are not co-located. These time-based attitudes and behavior will be compared to measures of team satisfaction and team effectiveness. A model of the impact of the temporal cultural differences and their effect on team performance is presented and the proposed research for testing this model is described.

Proceedings of the 2007 conference of the center for advanced studies on Collaborative research - CASCON '07, 2007

This paper describes an interview study investigating the collaborative information-seeking andsh... more This paper describes an interview study investigating the collaborative information-seeking andsharing practices of a global software testing team. A site located in Europe was used as a temporal bridge to help in managing time zone differences between the US, China and India. All sites utilized this bridge for critical, synchronous information seeking. Interviews suggest that bridging can be a taxing job and that the success of the bridging arrangement depended upon an intricate balance of temporal, infrastructure and cultural factors. Information seeking and sharing are communication activities that are critical for successful software engineering, design, development and testing. Engineers spend from forty per cent to seventy-five per cent of their work time engaged in communication activities [12] [24] [29]. Some proportion of the information needed by software

Software Process: Improvement and Practice, 2008

Globally distributed software engineering involves one or more of geographic, temporal or cultura... more Globally distributed software engineering involves one or more of geographic, temporal or cultural distances, which empirical studies find have deleterious effects on the efficiency of the software engineering process. There have been some successful examples where one 'bridge' location has facilitated collaboration and coordination across the other locations. Managers might want to use this bridging as a tactic for future projects, even when future collaborations may be composed of very different participants and in different locations and contexts than current successfully bridged teams. However, group behaviour is complicated and establishing an effective bridge is neither a simple nor a straightforward step. We propose a set of guidelines, based on empirical findings, to help managers understand what to expect from the bridging tactic. These include cultural, organizational, individual and temporal factors as well as insights into the costs and benefits of bridging.

Journal of Higher Education, Theory, and Practice, 2017

2009 Fourth IEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering, 2009

... Richard Egan New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA egan@adm.njit.edu MarilynTremaine Rutger... more ... Richard Egan New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA egan@adm.njit.edu MarilynTremaine Rutgers University, USA tremaine@caip.rutgers.edu Jerry Fjermestad New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA fjermestad@adm.njit.edu ...

Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

Change and the resistance to change has been a common occurrence probably since before recorded t... more Change and the resistance to change has been a common occurrence probably since before recorded time. It is normal to resist that which may bring unfamiliarity and the unknown into ones life. As practitioners, who in the course of our professions frequently create change we know that there will be resistance. Often though, we do not know how to avoid it or at least minimize it. What is a practitioner to do, where do they start? In an effort to help the practitioner this paper will summarize the findings of a selection of relevant articles, both the why of resistance and the what to do's. Then we will look at three models of change management. The hope is that with this information the practitioner will be better equipped to guide the change to a satisfactory conclusion for all involved.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Interaction between two teams with the same team leader and with similar size and goals moved fro... more Interaction between two teams with the same team leader and with similar size and goals moved from weekly face-to-face meetings to virtual meetings because of the temporary displacement of the team leader to a time zone six hours ahead of the rest of the team. One team focused primarily on software development and the second team on developing and testing a research instrument. The Software Team floundered through multiple different meeting arrangements and eventually agreed to disperse until the leader returned to the same time zone. In contrast, the Research Instrument Team kept a single meeting time that was set before it moved to virtual gatherings, and continued to be an active and productive team. This paper explores what factors led to this divergence in team success and concludes that the implicit temporal structures entraining the members of the Software Team coupled with an inability to repair member unhappiness and an unequal dispersion of skill sets among virtual and co-located members led to one team's eventual shutdown.

… Journal of e- …, 2009

Virtual teams are an important work structure in software development projects. However, little i... more Virtual teams are an important work structure in software development projects. However, little is known about what constitutes effective virtual software team leadership, in particular, the amount of leader delegation that is appropriate in a virtual software-development environment. ...

Partially distributed global teams form an important work structure in software development proje... more Partially distributed global teams form an important work structure in software development projects. However, little is known about the challenges such team structures create in supporting team members' motivation and maintaining member job satisfaction. This study investigates the effects of leader delegation, task significance and trust between local and distributed members of a team on team member motivation and job satisfaction. The paper also proposes a research model and a set of hypotheses regarding these effects. A pilot study performed on student teams is described which tests portions of the research model. The study found that distributed software team leaders delegate more to competent teams and that delegation is positively correlated with team member satisfaction with their leader and with team member motivation. The results form this work suggest both that global team leaders need to assess team competence when delegating tasks and also that organizations putting together global teams should strive to create highly competent teams since member distribution entrains higher delegation.

Journal of Leadership and Management, Aug 25, 2014

This paper describes the process performed in developing a Gap Analysis instrument used to determ... more This paper describes the process performed in developing a Gap Analysis instrument used to determine differences in temporal perception among globally dispersed software teams. Through a series of pilot studies, card-sorting exercises, interviews with respondents, and statistical analyses, an original set of 37 items measuring 12 constructs was clarified and reduced to 12 items measuring four constructs. Overall, this paper presents the adaptation of a methodology used primarily to measure the delivery of service to that of capturing global team differences which may impact effective team functioning.

This paper describes the process performed in devel oping a Gap Analysis instrument used to deter... more This paper describes the process performed in devel oping a Gap Analysis instrument used to determine differences in temporal perception among globally dispersed software teams. Through a series of pilot studies, card-sorting exercises, interviews with respondents, and statistical analyses, an original set of 37 items measuring 12 constructs was clarified and reduced to 12 items measuring four constructs. Overall, this

AMCIS 2007 …, 2007

Partially distributed global teams form an important work structure in software development proje... more Partially distributed global teams form an important work structure in software development projects. However, little is known about the challenges such team structures create in supporting team members' motivation and maintaining member job satisfaction. ...

… , 2009. ICGSE 2009 …, 2009

... Richard Egan New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA egan@adm.njit.edu MarilynTremaine Rutger... more ... Richard Egan New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA egan@adm.njit.edu MarilynTremaine Rutgers University, USA tremaine@caip.rutgers.edu Jerry Fjermestad New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA fjermestad@adm.njit.edu ...

… , 2009. ICGSE 2009 …, 2009

... Richard Egan New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA egan@adm.njit.edu MarilynTremaine Rutger... more ... Richard Egan New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA egan@adm.njit.edu MarilynTremaine Rutgers University, USA tremaine@caip.rutgers.edu Jerry Fjermestad New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA fjermestad@adm.njit.edu ...

Globally distributed software engineering involves one or more of geographic, temporal or cultura... more Globally distributed software engineering involves one or more of geographic, temporal or cultural distances, which empirical studies find have deleterious effects on the efficiency of the software engineering process. There have been some successful examples where one 'bridge' location has facilitated collaboration and coordination across the other locations. Managers might want to use this bridging as a tactic for future projects, even when future collaborations may be composed of very different participants and in different locations and contexts than current successfully bridged teams. However, group behaviour is complicated and establishing an effective bridge is neither a simple nor a straightforward step. We propose a set of guidelines, based on empirical findings, to help managers understand what to expect from the bridging tactic. These include cultural, organizational, individual and temporal factors as well as insights into the costs and benefits of bridging.

2006 IEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE'06), 2006

Global software development has been found to be a difficult undertaking, in particular, when mem... more Global software development has been found to be a difficult undertaking, in particular, when members of a single team are not co-located. Studies have looked at the impact of different cultural backgrounds, communication structures and temporal distance on the team's effectiveness. This research proposes to examine the impact of culturally based perceptions of time. A gap analysis is proposed to carry out this examination. The gap that will be measured is the gap between time-based attitudes and behavior in team unit A and team unit B where units A and B are part of the same team but are not co-located. These time-based attitudes and behavior will be compared to measures of team satisfaction and team effectiveness. A model of the impact of the temporal cultural differences and their effect on team performance is presented and the proposed research for testing this model is described.

The study of globally-distributed software teams is a difficult endeavor, and it is not easy to c... more The study of globally-distributed software teams is a difficult endeavor, and it is not easy to collect global software team data, analyze it and interpret it clearly. Our research strategy has been one of research diversity, i.e., researchers with diverse interests from varied locations studying a variety of issues of global teams in several contexts using many different methodologies. We have found this pragmatic approach to be a useful one, especially the strategy of employing whatever methods are most appropriate and feasible in the context of field research. We outline examples of our use of ethnographic techniques, statistical modeling of survey results and gap analysis and show how they have worked together to provide solid insights about global software engineering.

2006 IEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE'06), 2006

Global software development has been found to be a difficult undertaking, in particular, when mem... more Global software development has been found to be a difficult undertaking, in particular, when members of a single team are not co-located. Studies have looked at the impact of different cultural backgrounds, communication structures and temporal distance on the team's effectiveness. This research proposes to examine the impact of culturally based perceptions of time. A gap analysis is proposed to carry out this examination. The gap that will be measured is the gap between time-based attitudes and behavior in team unit A and team unit B where units A and B are part of the same team but are not co-located. These time-based attitudes and behavior will be compared to measures of team satisfaction and team effectiveness. A model of the impact of the temporal cultural differences and their effect on team performance is presented and the proposed research for testing this model is described.

Proceedings of the 2007 conference of the center for advanced studies on Collaborative research - CASCON '07, 2007

This paper describes an interview study investigating the collaborative information-seeking andsh... more This paper describes an interview study investigating the collaborative information-seeking andsharing practices of a global software testing team. A site located in Europe was used as a temporal bridge to help in managing time zone differences between the US, China and India. All sites utilized this bridge for critical, synchronous information seeking. Interviews suggest that bridging can be a taxing job and that the success of the bridging arrangement depended upon an intricate balance of temporal, infrastructure and cultural factors. Information seeking and sharing are communication activities that are critical for successful software engineering, design, development and testing. Engineers spend from forty per cent to seventy-five per cent of their work time engaged in communication activities [12] [24] [29]. Some proportion of the information needed by software

Software Process: Improvement and Practice, 2008

Globally distributed software engineering involves one or more of geographic, temporal or cultura... more Globally distributed software engineering involves one or more of geographic, temporal or cultural distances, which empirical studies find have deleterious effects on the efficiency of the software engineering process. There have been some successful examples where one 'bridge' location has facilitated collaboration and coordination across the other locations. Managers might want to use this bridging as a tactic for future projects, even when future collaborations may be composed of very different participants and in different locations and contexts than current successfully bridged teams. However, group behaviour is complicated and establishing an effective bridge is neither a simple nor a straightforward step. We propose a set of guidelines, based on empirical findings, to help managers understand what to expect from the bridging tactic. These include cultural, organizational, individual and temporal factors as well as insights into the costs and benefits of bridging.

Journal of Higher Education, Theory, and Practice, 2017

2009 Fourth IEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering, 2009

... Richard Egan New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA egan@adm.njit.edu MarilynTremaine Rutger... more ... Richard Egan New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA egan@adm.njit.edu MarilynTremaine Rutgers University, USA tremaine@caip.rutgers.edu Jerry Fjermestad New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA fjermestad@adm.njit.edu ...

Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

Change and the resistance to change has been a common occurrence probably since before recorded t... more Change and the resistance to change has been a common occurrence probably since before recorded time. It is normal to resist that which may bring unfamiliarity and the unknown into ones life. As practitioners, who in the course of our professions frequently create change we know that there will be resistance. Often though, we do not know how to avoid it or at least minimize it. What is a practitioner to do, where do they start? In an effort to help the practitioner this paper will summarize the findings of a selection of relevant articles, both the why of resistance and the what to do's. Then we will look at three models of change management. The hope is that with this information the practitioner will be better equipped to guide the change to a satisfactory conclusion for all involved.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Interaction between two teams with the same team leader and with similar size and goals moved fro... more Interaction between two teams with the same team leader and with similar size and goals moved from weekly face-to-face meetings to virtual meetings because of the temporary displacement of the team leader to a time zone six hours ahead of the rest of the team. One team focused primarily on software development and the second team on developing and testing a research instrument. The Software Team floundered through multiple different meeting arrangements and eventually agreed to disperse until the leader returned to the same time zone. In contrast, the Research Instrument Team kept a single meeting time that was set before it moved to virtual gatherings, and continued to be an active and productive team. This paper explores what factors led to this divergence in team success and concludes that the implicit temporal structures entraining the members of the Software Team coupled with an inability to repair member unhappiness and an unequal dispersion of skill sets among virtual and co-located members led to one team's eventual shutdown.

… Journal of e- …, 2009

Virtual teams are an important work structure in software development projects. However, little i... more Virtual teams are an important work structure in software development projects. However, little is known about what constitutes effective virtual software team leadership, in particular, the amount of leader delegation that is appropriate in a virtual software-development environment. ...

Partially distributed global teams form an important work structure in software development proje... more Partially distributed global teams form an important work structure in software development projects. However, little is known about the challenges such team structures create in supporting team members' motivation and maintaining member job satisfaction. This study investigates the effects of leader delegation, task significance and trust between local and distributed members of a team on team member motivation and job satisfaction. The paper also proposes a research model and a set of hypotheses regarding these effects. A pilot study performed on student teams is described which tests portions of the research model. The study found that distributed software team leaders delegate more to competent teams and that delegation is positively correlated with team member satisfaction with their leader and with team member motivation. The results form this work suggest both that global team leaders need to assess team competence when delegating tasks and also that organizations putting together global teams should strive to create highly competent teams since member distribution entrains higher delegation.

Journal of Leadership and Management, Aug 25, 2014

This paper describes the process performed in developing a Gap Analysis instrument used to determ... more This paper describes the process performed in developing a Gap Analysis instrument used to determine differences in temporal perception among globally dispersed software teams. Through a series of pilot studies, card-sorting exercises, interviews with respondents, and statistical analyses, an original set of 37 items measuring 12 constructs was clarified and reduced to 12 items measuring four constructs. Overall, this paper presents the adaptation of a methodology used primarily to measure the delivery of service to that of capturing global team differences which may impact effective team functioning.

This paper describes the process performed in devel oping a Gap Analysis instrument used to deter... more This paper describes the process performed in devel oping a Gap Analysis instrument used to determine differences in temporal perception among globally dispersed software teams. Through a series of pilot studies, card-sorting exercises, interviews with respondents, and statistical analyses, an original set of 37 items measuring 12 constructs was clarified and reduced to 12 items measuring four constructs. Overall, this

AMCIS 2007 …, 2007

Partially distributed global teams form an important work structure in software development proje... more Partially distributed global teams form an important work structure in software development projects. However, little is known about the challenges such team structures create in supporting team members' motivation and maintaining member job satisfaction. ...

… , 2009. ICGSE 2009 …, 2009

... Richard Egan New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA egan@adm.njit.edu MarilynTremaine Rutger... more ... Richard Egan New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA egan@adm.njit.edu MarilynTremaine Rutgers University, USA tremaine@caip.rutgers.edu Jerry Fjermestad New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA fjermestad@adm.njit.edu ...

… , 2009. ICGSE 2009 …, 2009

... Richard Egan New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA egan@adm.njit.edu MarilynTremaine Rutger... more ... Richard Egan New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA egan@adm.njit.edu MarilynTremaine Rutgers University, USA tremaine@caip.rutgers.edu Jerry Fjermestad New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA fjermestad@adm.njit.edu ...

Globally distributed software engineering involves one or more of geographic, temporal or cultura... more Globally distributed software engineering involves one or more of geographic, temporal or cultural distances, which empirical studies find have deleterious effects on the efficiency of the software engineering process. There have been some successful examples where one 'bridge' location has facilitated collaboration and coordination across the other locations. Managers might want to use this bridging as a tactic for future projects, even when future collaborations may be composed of very different participants and in different locations and contexts than current successfully bridged teams. However, group behaviour is complicated and establishing an effective bridge is neither a simple nor a straightforward step. We propose a set of guidelines, based on empirical findings, to help managers understand what to expect from the bridging tactic. These include cultural, organizational, individual and temporal factors as well as insights into the costs and benefits of bridging.

2006 IEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE'06), 2006

Global software development has been found to be a difficult undertaking, in particular, when mem... more Global software development has been found to be a difficult undertaking, in particular, when members of a single team are not co-located. Studies have looked at the impact of different cultural backgrounds, communication structures and temporal distance on the team's effectiveness. This research proposes to examine the impact of culturally based perceptions of time. A gap analysis is proposed to carry out this examination. The gap that will be measured is the gap between time-based attitudes and behavior in team unit A and team unit B where units A and B are part of the same team but are not co-located. These time-based attitudes and behavior will be compared to measures of team satisfaction and team effectiveness. A model of the impact of the temporal cultural differences and their effect on team performance is presented and the proposed research for testing this model is described.

The study of globally-distributed software teams is a difficult endeavor, and it is not easy to c... more The study of globally-distributed software teams is a difficult endeavor, and it is not easy to collect global software team data, analyze it and interpret it clearly. Our research strategy has been one of research diversity, i.e., researchers with diverse interests from varied locations studying a variety of issues of global teams in several contexts using many different methodologies. We have found this pragmatic approach to be a useful one, especially the strategy of employing whatever methods are most appropriate and feasible in the context of field research. We outline examples of our use of ethnographic techniques, statistical modeling of survey results and gap analysis and show how they have worked together to provide solid insights about global software engineering.