UNCORRECTED PROOFS SPIP185 SOFTWARE PROCESS IMPROVEMENT AND PRACTICE Softw. Process Improve. Pract. 2004; 8: 000–000 (DOI: 10.1002/spip.185) The Impact of Time Separation on Coordination in Global Software Teams: a Conceptual Foundation Research Section J. Alberto Espinosa* † and Erran Carmel Kogod School of Business, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20016-8044, USA While there has been much research on the study of global virtual teams and global software teams, there has been practically no research on the nuances of time separation. We present three converging perspectives on this topic: (a) a view from practices and tactics of global teams; (b) a theoretical view from coordination theories; and (c) a view from our prior research in which we modeled coordination costs for time-separated dyads. Practice suggests that time separation arises not only from time-zone differences but also from factors such as nonoverlapping weekend days and holidays, shifts, and different working schedules. It also suggests that teams employ various coping tactics when faced with time separation – synchronous, asynchronous, and education. Theory suggests that communication is necessary to coordinate and that effectiveness of communication is hampered, both in quality and timeliness, when teams are separated by time. Our model, based on coordination theory, suggests that coordination costs contain four main components – communication, clarification, delay, and rework – and that the various aspects of time-separated work have different effects on each of these components. Our convergent view from these three perspectives shows that distance separation is symmetric – i.e. distance (A,B) = distance (B,A) – while time separation is asymmetric, which affects the planning of team interactions; that the timing of activities matters in time-separated contexts but not in contexts with only distance separation; and that vulnerability costs (i.e. resolving misunderstandings and rework) increase with time separation. Copyright  2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. KEY WORDS: global software teams; global software development; geographically dispersed teams; coordination costs; time separation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1. INTRODUCTION Coordination in different-time contexts (time zones, holiday differences) is difficult because of lean ∗ Correspondence to: J. Alberto Espinosa, Kogod School of Business, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.Washington, D.C. 20016-8044, USA † E-mail: alberto@american.edu Copyright  2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 communication media, difficulties in resolving unclear messages, reduced opportunities for spon- taneous interaction, and lack of contextual ref- erence. Fundamentally, time differences tend to increase coordination costs. Yet, despite these costs, team work is increasingly carried out globally. There are a number of reasons for this increase. One reason is that since software products are dig- ital, their transportation costs are very low and delivery time is effectively zero. Also, production