Software development conducted in a distributed fashion is often referred to as ‘Global Software Work’ (GSW).
More accurately, Sahay defines GSW as “software work undertaken at geographically separated locations across national boundaries in a coordinated fashion involving real time and asynchronous interaction” .
Given these characteristics, it becomes clear that GSW involves different kinds of complexities compared to traditional software development where members of the project are more or less co-located and are therefore able to share their experiences through face-to-face communication.