Imparting the importance of culture to global software development

As a result of the expanding trend to globalise software development there is a specific requirement to understand and address issues which previously did not arise. This includes the important impact distance has on the success of globally distributed software development projects. Research has identified four key elements of distance in this context. These elements are temporal, geographical, linguistic and cultural distance. Each has the potential to impact significantly on the outcome of such projects. The consequences are considerably compounded when the negative aspects of each of these elements are allowed to occur simultaneously. Research in this area has highlighted the importance of each of these elements and the fact that they warrant separate and collective consideration and study. This paper focuses on one of these key elements cultural distance and its specific and collective impact on global software development projects. In this context culture is defined and its dimensions and concepts are outlined. A summary of relevant literature in this area is presented and discussed. Given the importance that culture plays software engineering educators must consider and address how knowledge of this important factor can be successfully imparted to students at an undergraduate and postgraduate level in the University setting. In this paper The experience of how this has been successfully achieved in is outlined and discussed.