Measurement of interpersonal trust in virtual software teams: A systematic literature review

The progress of Information and Communication Technologies has significantly promoted the relationships among people of different geographical regions. Under this novel context, new settings of software development teams arise, known as virtual teams. The objective is to identify, evaluate and synthesize reported research about the measurement of interpersonal trust (IpT) in virtual software teams (VST). We conducted a systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature published in the research area until July 2019. We reviewed 747 papers, of which 11 primary studies were considered relevant for the investigation. Most studies (8 of 11) use instruments of direct measurements (interviews and questionnaires) to measure interpersonal trust. Studies that use indirect measurements focus on different characteristics of the virtual software team (agreeableness, affective lexicon, delegation, positive tone, acceptance of knowledge, etcand others). Recomiendo: Most studies (10 of 11) report that interpersonal trust measurements improve performance aspects of virtual software teams. Among them the willingness to share information, goodwill towards others, motivation, collaboration, and effectiveness. Most studies use questionnaires or interviews, but we believe that software repository mining to obtain IpT levels will be an auspicious research trend in the future. The attribute more used to assess IpT is the developer opinion. Other attributes used are emotions, interactions between developers, biography, acceptance of knowledge, and assignment of tasks. IpT measurement is a useful tool for decision-making in VTS management, especially in agile software processes, but there is little evidence of its use.