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

Abstract

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 of this study is to identify, evaluate, and synthesize research on the measurement of interpersonal trust in virtual software teams. A systematic review of peer-reviewed literature was conducted, including 747 papers, of which 11 were considered relevant. Most studies use interviews and questionnaires to measure interpersonal trust, and findings suggest that trust measurement improves various aspects of performance in virtual teams, such as collaboration and effectiveness. However, there is little evidence that these measurements are regularly implemented.