Given the increasing importance of globally distributed software development (GDSD) over the last decade, it is surprising that empirical research in this area is still in the very early stage. The few existing suggest that traditional coordination and control mechanisms can be effective for these projects only with support from appropriate information technology. However, at present, little is known about the success of current Information and Communication Technology (ICT) support in the context of GDSD projects. Therefore, the main question this research addresses is what ICT-based support is appropriate for globally distributed software development projects? The objectives of this research are to elicit and develop the functional requirements for ICT support for GDSD projects, to analyze the gap between existing tools and these requirements, and to develop an Internet-based integrated architecture of tools that would fill these gaps.
