Software Prototypes as Boundary Objects

Diverse knowledge of virtual teams is essential for the development of new ideas and solutions to problems. When team members share and integrate different perspectives, new knowledge can emerge. At the same time, when diverse knowledge is distributed among several team members, knowledge integration across borders is particularly difficult. In our research, we focus on the role of software prototypes as boundary objects. On the one hand, we examine how software prototypes can be transformed into boundary objects, i.e., how the essential characteristics of boundary objects can emerge through use practices with software prototypes to enable collaboration across borders. On the other hand, we examine how software prototypes help team members to integrate knowledge in different ways over a project’s life.

Publications

Winkler, Maike; Huber, Thomas; Dibbern, Jens (5 January 2016). Supporting Joint Idea Generation with Software Prototypes in Offshore-Outsourced Software Development Projects. In: Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-49). Kauai. 05.-08.01.2016.

Winkler, Maike; Brown, Carol; Huber, Thomas (May 2015). Recurrent Knowledge Boundaries in Outsourced Software Projects: A Longitudinal Study. In: Twenty-Third European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS). Münster, Germany. 26.-29.05.2015.

Winkler, Maike; Huber, Thomas; Dibbern, Jens (December 2014). The Software Prototype as Digital Boundary Object – A Revelatory Longitudinal Innovation Case. In: International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS). Auckland, New Zealand.