Trust plays a key role in innovation, efficiency and thus effectiveness during collaborations, more so in virtual teams (VT) when members are unlikely to meet face-to-face. Establishing trust in virtual teams can increase effectiveness as team members will be less likely to spend time cross-checking others work. This research has three principle objectives: 1) develop a deeper understanding of trust in VT, 2) establish design rationale for automated monitoring and management of trust in VT, and 3) develop prototypes to monitor and manage trust in VT.
The results of this research will fill a gap in the literature by conducting a field study of trust in distributed software engineering teams. The prototype tool will provide insights into software support for trust in VT. Further, this study fits into a long-term successful program of research in analyzing and developing software support for collaborative software engineering in virtual organizations, giving a unique perspective and the opportunity to integrate findings with larger cross-cutting themes. The broader impacts include increasing the effectiveness of collaborations in teams, both for students enrolled in software engineering courses and ultimately practitioners working distributed software engineering. Moreover, enabling trust can encourage innovation, thus increasing the advantages of diverse teams by increasing confidence in collaboration while reducing transaction costs.
