Given the relevance of coordination in the field of global software engineering, this work was carried out to further understand coordination mechanisms. Specifically, we investigated meetings and the collaboration tool Slack. We conducted a longitudinal case study using a mixed-methods approach with surveys, observations, interviews, and chat logs. Our quantitative results show that employees in global projects spend 7 hours 45 minutes per week on average in scheduled meetings and 8 hours 54 minutes in unscheduled meetings. Furthermore, distributed teams were significantly larger than co-located teams, and people working in distributed teams spent somewhat more time in meetings per day. We found that low availability of key people, absence of organizational support for unscheduled meetings and unbalanced activity from team members in meetings and on Slack were barriers for effective coordination across sites. The positive aspects of using collaboration tools in distributed teams were increased team awareness and informal communication and reduced the need for e-mail. Our study emphasizes the importance of reflecting on how global software engineering teams use meetings and collaboration tools to coordinate. We provide practical advice for conducting better meetings and give suggestions for more efficient use of collaboration tools in global projects.

中文翻译：

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理解全球软件工程中的协调：关于会议和 Slack 使用的混合方法研究

鉴于协调在全球软件工程领域的相关性，开展这项工作是为了进一步了解协调机制。具体来说，我们调查了会议和协作工具 Slack。我们使用混合方法进行了纵向案例研究，包括调查、观察、访谈和聊天记录。我们的量化结果显示，全球项目的员工每周平均在预定会议上花费 7 小时 45 分钟，在不定期会议上花费 8 小时 54 分钟。此外，分布式团队明显大于同地团队，在分布式团队中工作的人每天花在会议上的时间要多一些。我们发现关键人员的可用性低，缺乏对计划外会议的组织支持以及团队成员在会议和 Slack 上的不平衡活动是跨站点有效协调的障碍。在分布式团队中使用协作工具的积极方面是提高了团队意识和非正式沟通，并减少了对电子邮件的需求。我们的研究强调了反思全球软件工程团队如何使用会议和协作工具进行协调的重要性。我们为举办更好的会议提供实用建议，并为在全球项目中更有效地使用协作工具提供建议。我们的研究强调了反思全球软件工程团队如何使用会议和协作工具进行协调的重要性。我们为举办更好的会议提供实用建议，并为在全球项目中更有效地使用协作工具提供建议。我们的研究强调了反思全球软件工程团队如何使用会议和协作工具进行协调的重要性。我们为举办更好的会议提供实用建议，并为在全球项目中更有效地使用协作工具提供建议。