There are a lot of different situations in software projects with distributed teams. You can seen both successful and disastrous projects in terms of the ways communication and coordination was designed. People can be pretty much on the same page in terms of project goals while seating in different offices and in different countries. You can also witness people being completely off the track, suffering and losing motivation. Based on experience, this video tries to explains what make some projects good places to be and some not.

In this video, Craig Larman explains the internal workings of a customer-supplier relationship, advising on how to proceed to ensure an offshore Agile software development project that is fulfilling for both parties.
http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Collaboration-Over-Contracts