e-Collaboration in Distributed Requirements Determination

It is widely agreed that the trend toward distributed software development is growing. Although there are difficulties involved, this trend is here to stay, as organizations will continue to search for ways to develop software at lower cost but with same quality. Current research has focused primari...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of e-collaboration 2005-04, Vol.1 (2), p.40-56
Main Authors: Evaristo, Roberto, Watson-Manheim, Mary Beth, Audy, Jorge
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Authorship
Collaboration
Cooperation
Design and construction
Distributed processing (Computers)
Information systems
Organizations
Product life cycle
Software
Software development
Students
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Summary:It is widely agreed that the trend toward distributed software development is growing. Although there are difficulties involved, this trend is here to stay, as organizations will continue to search for ways to develop software at lower cost but with same quality. Current research has focused primarily on the later stages of the software development life cycle, especially coding of software requirements. However, as organizations become more virtual, distributed development will become more apparent throughout the entire life cycle. In this study, we investigate distributed e-collaboration in requirements determination in software development. We report on results from a field experiment with two graduate level Information Systems classes, one located in Porto Alegre, Brazil and one in Chicago, Ilinois, USA. The students in Brazil played the role of users whereas the students in Chicago role-played analysts. The Chicago-based students developed a requirements document for an information system by interviewing the Brazil students using an electronic discussion board. Our findings provide insight into the distributed analysis process and identify sources of potential problems.
ISSN:1548-3673
1548-3681
DOI:10.4018/jec.2005040103