Does Distribution Make Any Difference? Quantitative Comparison of Collocated and Globally Distributed Projects

Research on globally distributed software development (GSD) assumes the characteristics of the GSD projects to differ from collocated projects. Results of mainly qualitative studies describe communication, coordination, and issues related to team dynamics as typical problems in GSD projects. However, there is a lack of quantitative studies using real project data, and proven research instruments and methods in which collocated and distributed projects are compared systematically. The results of our quantitative analysis show significant differences between these project types concerning team dynamics, teamwork quality, individual satisfaction and project performance. The results are consistently "favoring" the collocated projects. Hypothetically, applying the key principles of Scrum and XP would help to mitigate the problems of GSD projects.