How Teams Far Apart Can Work Well Together

International Business Machines Corp. programmer Rob Nicholson has never met most of the 50 colleagues, on three continents, with whom he collaborates on writing software. But Mr. Nicholson feels part of a team from the moment he logs on each morning in Hursley, England.

Colleagues in India, alerted that Mr. Nicholson is online, fire questions. Then Mr. Nicholson checks notes on interactive bulletin boards, or wikis, that his team shares. One recent day, he found notes from teammates in India suggesting changes to a proposed software design that he had posted the previous night; he revised the design that day.

Mr. Nicholson says the constant communication helps him feel there are "lots of people attacking the same hill."

By Phred Dvorak

From The Wall Street Journal Online

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