Collaboration in Global Intra-Organizational Systems Development

There are a large number of compelling reasons for companies to collaborate with offshore teams in systems development projects — access to expertise, a 24-hour work cycle, and more efficient utilization of company resources, to name a few. There are, however, many obstacles that affect the coordination of such collaboration that can often lead to frustration, mistakes, and consequently, project delays. Such problems can occur, even when the team works in an offshore branch of the same company and shares a common corporate culture. This chapter presents the case of two teams working on an System Application products (SAP) project in a global corporation named Renjosoft. Significant communication and coordination challenges plagued the project and a set of mechanisms were put into place to ensure smoother project management in the future. Using the transorganizational development model (TOD), the chapter analyses the management of Renjosoft’s project and makes recommendations of best practices for working on collaborative projects across borders.