Fallstudie om globala systemutvecklingsprojekt : Hur fungerar kommunikation och kravhantering i ett mångkulturellt IT-projekt? 

Sammanfattning: Global Software Development (GSD) is the term from develoment team where teammembers are located on different geografical locations but working for the same IT-project. In development team like this people have to regard wheter there is difference in language, culture and time zones. This casestudie is focused in one of the most critical part in IT-development, requirement engineering. Previous research has shown that the cultural aspects are important in decision making for businesses that choose to outsource. Another factor dealt with is the time zone effect which some authors consider favorably in the sense that the number of hours worked per day is extended. This case study focused on investigating how communication and requirement management worked in global IT projects where a delimitation of southern Asia was made. The study was, among other things, from Hofstede's cultural dimension theory where power distances and individualism towards collectivism, as well as Gurung and Prater's framework for a successful outsourcing strategy. These theories were used in comparison to the empirical data collected. Five people all with experience working in global development projects were interviewed to hear their experiences and opinions in projects such as these. What emerged from our case study was that cultural differences exist in global IT projects. Not least what people from different cultures were used to and they had to adapt to. Most informants felt that psycial contact was the most important part of communication. Something that was not obvious when people were sitting in different geographical locations. When people work in different places and time zones separates them, this contributes to inaccessibility. Some global development teams tried to solve the fact that people from southern Asia sometimes worked after Swedish times.