IT use for coordination of distributed work

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the coordination of distributed work and how existing information technology (IT) can be used and developed to improve the different forms of coordination. We have characterized a number of dependencies and identified the coordination processes that could manage them. Additionally we recommend certain specific IT solutions that improve these processes. Our focus has been on the usage of IT applications rather than the technology itself. The usage of IT affects the whole organization and therefore also brings us to the area of organization and project structures. The study was done at Ericsson Microwave Systems (EMW) and was based on interviews and short ethnographic studies.