Simulated Co-location in Distributed Software Development: An Experience Report

Distributed software development imposes challenges because of geographical, temporal and the cultural differences in which distributed teams live in. The advances in telecommunication, media, and technology have allowed companies to develop ways to simulate physical proximity in a real-time fashion. For instance, the sharing of a real-size screen can be used to promote the feeling that people on the other side of the screen are physically co-located with those in a certain site. The adoption of tools, methods, and technologies that simulate physical proximity aims to minimize the well-known challenges faced by distributed teams. The goal of this paper is to present the experience of a multinational Brazilian company in adopting technology to simulated co-location to support their software development processes. The benefits of such simulation, such as improved communication, and challenged faced, such as infrastructure problems, are also described.