Computer-mediated communication to support distributed requirements elicitations and negotiations tasks

Requirements engineering is one of the most communication-intensive activities in software development, greatly affected by project stakeholder geographical distribution. Despite advances in collaboration technologies, global software teams continue to experience significant challenges in the elicitation and negotiation of requirements. Deciding which communication technologies to deploy to achieve effective communication in distributed requirements engineering activities is not a trivial task. Is face-to-face or text-based communication more appropriate for requirements elicitations and negotiations? In teams that do not have access to face-to-face communication, is text-based communication more useful in requirements elicitations than in requirements negotiations? Here, we report an empirical study that analyzes the effectiveness of synchronous computer-mediated communication in requirements elicitations and negotiations. Our investigation is guided by a theoretical framework that we developed from theories of computer-mediated communication, common ground, and media selection for group tasks; a framework that considers the effectiveness of a communication medium in relation to the information richness needs of requirements elicitation and negotiation tasks. Our findings bring forward empirical evidence about the perceived as well as objective fit between synchronous communication technology and requirements tasks. First, face-to-face is not always the most preferred medium for requirements tasks, and we reveal a number of conditions in which, in contrast to common belief, text-based communication is preferred for requirements communication. Second, we find that in evaluating outcomes of requirements elicitations and negotiations objectively, group performance is not affected by the communication medium. Third, when groups interact only via text-based communication, common ground in requirements negotiations takes longer to achieve than in requirements elicitations, indicating that distributed requirements elicitation is the task where computer-mediated communication tools have most opportunity for successful application.     

On the Need for Mixed Media in Distributed Requirements Negotiations

Achieving agreement with respect to software requirements is a collaborative process that traditionally relies on same-time, same-place interactions. As the trend toward geographically distributed software development continues, colocated meetings are becoming increasingly problematic. Our research investigates the impact of computer-mediated communication on the performance of distributed client/developer teams involved in the collaborative development of a requirements specification. Drawing on media-selection theories, we posit that a combination of lean and rich media is needed for an effective process of requirements negotiations when stakeholders are geographically dispersed. In this paper, we present an empirical study that investigates the performance of six educational global project teams involved in a negotiation process using both asynchronous text-based and synchronous videoconferencing-based communication modes. The findings indicate that requirement negotiations were more effective when the groups conducted asynchronous structured discussions of requirement issues prior to the synchronous negotiation meeting. Asynchronous discussions were useful in resolving issues related to uncertainty in requirements, thus allowing synchronous negotiations to focus more on removing ambiguities in the requirements.     

A tool supporting root cause analysis for synchronous retrospectives in distributed software teams

ContextRoot cause analysis (RCA) is a useful practice for software project retrospectives, and is typically carried out in synchronous collocated face-to-face meetings. Conducting RCA with distributed teams is challenging, as face-to-face meetings are infeasible. Lack of adequate real-time tool support exacerbates this problem. Furthermore, there are no empirical studies on using RCA in synchronous retrospectives of geographically distributed teams.ObjectiveThis paper presents a real-time cloud-based software tool (ARCA-tool) we developed to support RCA in distributed teams and its initial empirical evaluation. The feasibility of using RCA with distributed teams is also evaluated.MethodWe compared our tool with 35 existing RCA software tools. We conducted field studies of four distributed agile software teams at two international software product companies. The teams conducted RCA collaboratively in synchronous retrospective meetings by using the tool we developed. We collected the data using observations, interviews and questionnaires.ResultsComparison revealed that none of the existing 35 tools matched all the features of our ARCA-tool. The team members found ARCA-tool to be an essential part of their distributed retrospectives. They considered the software as efficient and very easy to learn and use. Additionally, the team members perceived RCA to be a vital part of the retrospectives. In contrast to the prior retrospective practices of the teams, the introduced RCA method was evaluated as efficient and easy to use.ConclusionRCA is a useful practice in synchronous distributed retrospectives. However, it requires software tool support for enabling real-time view and co-creation of a cause-effect diagram. ARCA-tool supports synchronous RCA, and includes support for logging problems and causes, problem prioritization, cause-effect diagramming, and logging of process improvement proposals. It enables conducting RCA in distributed retrospectives.     

Assessing the impact of real-time machine translation on multilingual meetings in global software projects

Communication in global software development is hindered by language differences in countries with a lack of English speaking professionals. Machine translation is a technology that uses software to translate from one natural language to another. The progress of machine translation systems has been steady in the last decade. As for now, machine translation technology is particularly appealing because it might be used, in the form of cross-language chat services, in countries that are entering into global software projects. However, despite the recent progress of the technology, we still lack a thorough understanding of how real-time machine translation affects communication. In this paper, we present a set of empirical studies with the goal of assessing to what extent real-time machine translation can be used in distributed, multilingual requirements meetings instead of English. Results suggest that, despite far from 100 % accurate, real-time machine translation is not disruptive of the conversation flow and, therefore, is accepted with favor by participants. However, stronger effects can be expected to emerge when language barriers are more critical. Our findings add to the evidence about the recent advances of machine translation technology and provide some guidance to global software engineering practitioners in regarding the losses and gains of using English as a lingua franca in multilingual group communication, as in the case of computer-mediated requirements meetings.     

Affect in computer-mediated and face-to-face work groups: The construction and testing of a general model

The present study examines the role of affect, or emotion, in the performance of computer-mediated and face-to-face work groups. Past research has focussed on the role of affect in either individual information processing or behavior in settings requiring interpersonal interaction. Little research has examined the role of affect in groups, especially those in a work group setting. Even less is known about the role that the communication medium plays in the expression or impact of group members' affect. To integrate these domains, a general model of affect in work group settings is proposed. Predictions are derived from the relevant affect, group interaction, and group performance literatures. In addition, predictions about the moderating role of the communication system are discussed. Results from a path analysis suggest that affect has a substantial impact intragroup on processes as well as on work group performance. In face-to-face groups, the affect experienced by group members had an impact on the group's cohesiveness, the amount members participated in the task, and the degree to which members processed information relevant to the task. These factors, in turn, had implications for the group's performance. In computer-mediated groups, affect had an effect on the group's cohesiveness and the amount of information processing, though these were unrelated to any performance measures for these groups. Similarities and differences between communication media are discussed in terms of their importance for extending our understanding about the role of affect in a group performance context.     

BOO: Behavior-oriented ontology to describe participant dynamics in collocated design meetings

Facilitating meetings is not an easy task. To assist the facilitator, we have been designing intelligent support systems, which can help contextual sensemaking, decision making and action. However, these systems are constructed based on behavioral models that provide guidelines to understand participant behaviors. This paper presents an ontology to describe participants’ behaviors in collaborative design meetings and rules that correlate them with the group’s acceptance of the final product. This ontology describes the group dynamics at collocated meetings, using verbal and non-verbal cues of attention shifts and attention maintenance as its basic constructs. The objective of creating this ontology was to better understand face-to-face meetings to eventually help meeting facilitators identify issues that may lead to dissatisfaction with the final product through behavioral cues. The ontology was derived through extensive analysis of a series of engineering design session videos. The design group was composed of experts with similar backgrounds, but working in different divisions of the same company. Different points of view were argued and decisions were made at the end of each meeting. After each meeting, participants were asked to asynchronously commit to the decisions made in the group. Our ontology can be used to identify the factors that lead to an undesired outcome, and now serves as a basis for a new project, which uses rules to support design meetings, improve final artifact acceptance and reduce rework. Our conclusions point out correlations between designers’ behaviors and future artifact acceptance and actions that interrupt or bring back group attention. The ontology was validated through application to other meeting situations. These findings may guide software developers in the creation of tools to support group design, and may be applied by an intelligent system.     

Computer-mediated communication in collaborative writing

The purpose of this study was to determine if using computers to communicate during group writing tasks is an effective mode of communication. Three-person teams wrote term papers in one of three conditions: face-to-face (FTF), synchronous computer-mediated communication (Netmeeting), or email. The participants were given 6 weeks to complete the task. Product differences showed only that email groups produced shorter rough drafts than FTF groups, indicating the rough draft was not as well thought out in the email groups. Process measures demonstrated that, overall, communication styles that afforded interactivity were utilized effectively in a collaborative writing setting. Furthermore, lack of expressiveness did not appear to deter groupwork. The results suggest that email alone may not be an appropriate setting for writing collaboratively; whereas teams in a synchronous computer-mediated communication setting, such as Netmeeting, should be able to produce quality work satisfactorily.     

Using different communication media in requirements negotiation

Contrary to traditional wisdom, the authors found that, when it comes to requirements negotiations, groups meeting face-to-face perform no better than those using video conferencing and computer support. Furthermore, their study identified a particular distributed group configuration that significantly improved performance and was more conducive to negotiations than face-to-face meetings     

A comparative content analysis of face-to-face vs. asynchronous group decision making

A field experiment was conducted to analyze the process and contents of group discussions. Groups solved a case study either orally or through an asynchronous computer-mediated communication system. Findings show that asynchronous groups had broader discussions and submitted more complete reports than their face-to-face counterparts. However, there was no difference in the ability to transfer information from the discussion to the report; under both conditions, about 15% of the issues mentioned in the discussion were omitted from the final report. In terms of coordination, face-to-face teams covered the case study questions sequentially, while asynchronous groups were more focused on solving their general disagreements.     

Sampling and pooling of decision-relevant information: Comparing the efficiency of face-to-face and GSS supported groups

Past research has suggested that decision-making groups, when communicating face-to-face (FtF), suffered from information sharing biases that affected the quality of the final decision: they tended to discuss previously-shared information before they started to discuss information not known to all, and discussed more of previously-shared than unshared information. In our study we examined these effects in groups that interacted FtF or using a group support system (GSS). Four-member groups discussed a requirements elicitation task in which some requirements were known to all members before starting their discussion, while other requirements were known only to two members of the group. Both GSS and FtF groups exchanged a large percentage of the shared requirements. However, the GSS groups were more effective in communicating unshared requirements. On average, FtF groups discussed shared requirements sooner and unshared requirements later than did GSS groups. Our study also compared empirical results with predictions from an information-sampling model of group discussion in order to assess the effectiveness of the model in computer-mediated group communication.     

How to address group dynamics in virtual worlds

The study of group dynamics highlights the activity in the group in terms of its performance and communication. The experience of facilitating virtual communities and teams (Eunice and Kimball in , 1997) suggests that groups go through the same stages either in face-to-face or in online mode. The paper brings together a theoretical framework based on the literature on virtual communities, Gestalt systems and online facilitation in order to address the issue of electronic togetherness, in particular from a group dynamics perspective. The empirical work on which the paper is based is an observation of a group of students in a training set playing a decision-making game. The model of Tuckman (Tuckman in Psychol Bull 63:384–399, 1965; Tuckman and Jensen in Group Organ Stud 2:419–427, 1977) is used as a framework within which to discuss the findings of the case. The paper finishes with concrete recommendations for facilitators of online communities and designers of the electronic spaces where these communities operate.     

TeamSpirit: Design, implementation, and evaluation of a Web-based group decision support system

Distributed teams can carry out critical tasks with appropriate decision support technologies. The architecture and detailed design of a Web-based GDSS, called TeamSpirit, are discussed to address the challenges of building a Web-based GDSS. A series of empirical studies are reported to assess the effectiveness of TeamSpirit in supporting distributed group problem solving when in-person facilitation is not possible. Results indicate that giving creative problem solving training to TeamSpirit participants had positive impacts on team performance. Users who received brief TeamSpirit training were able to design and facilitate virtual meetings by themselves and achieved better team performance than control groups.     

Online vs. Face-to-Face Deliberation: Effects on Civic Engagement

Deliberation is considered to produce positive effects on public opinion, in that it exposes participants to alternative perspectives and rational arguments. However, whereas benefits of face-to-face deliberation have been supported by many empirical studies, the effects of online deliberation remain unclear to date. This research compares the effects of online and face-to-face deliberation in experimental settings. A theoretical review of computer-mediated communication and deliberative democracy suggests that online deliberation is not necessarily inferior to face-to-face deliberation. An experiment was conducted to compare the relative outcomes of a deliberation performed in face-to-face and computer-mediated settings. The results suggest that both online and face-to-face deliberation can increase participants' issue knowledge, political efficacy, and willingness to participate in politics.     

Training to improve virtual team communication

Abstract. Organizations are utilizing virtual teams, comprising workgroup members who communicate and collaborate with technology, to accomplish tasks. These teams are geographically distributed and communicate via computer-mediated communication systems (CMCS), and may never or rarely meet face-to-face. Relational links among team members have been found to be a significant contributor to the effectiveness of information exchange in the use of CMCS. In most cases, team members receive little or no training to improve the effectiveness of this form of communication. When training is used, it often focuses on software utilization skills, not on interpersonal communication dynamics. This paper discusses the effect of virtual team communication training on group interactions, especially for enhancing these relational links and thereby improving communication and information exchange in virtual teams. It was found that teams that were given appropriate training exhibited improved perceptions of the interaction process over time, specifically with regard to trust, commitment and frank expression between members. Discussion of the role of training on virtual team processes and outcomes is discussed and future research implications are presented.     

How do different types of intragroup conflict affect group potency in virtual compared with face-to-face teams? A longitudinal study

The number of organizations using teamwork is increasing. In this context, group potency has emerged as a key construct in group research. Moreover, in the last decades, information and communication technologies (ICT) have allowed organizations to form virtual teams. Consequently, a considerable amount of research has analysed the functioning of virtual teams. We focus on intragroup conflict as a relevant antecedent of potency in computer-mediated communication groups. Specifically, the aim of this research is to examine the role of ICT in the relationship between intragroup conflict and group potency in a longitudinal study. A laboratory experiment was carried out comparing 44 groups working in two communication media (face-to-face and computer-mediated communication). The groups developed a project over a one-month period. The results show that communication media play a moderator role between intragroup conflict (relationship and task conflict) and group potency. Implications of these results are discussed.     

The use of computer-mediated communication to enhance subsequent face-to-face discussions

A study assessing the effects of synchronous and asynchronous computer-mediated communication on subsequent face-to-face discussions was conducted. Participants were asked to read a short article about internet censorship. Then they were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a synchronous (internet chat) group, an asynchronous (internet discussion board) group and a control group. Both the internet chat group and the internet discussion board group engaged in an on-line dialog about the article they read. They then followed the on-line dialog with a face-to face discussion. The control group had no on-line discussion but instead immediately began a face-to-face discussion. Finally, all completed a questionnaire about their experience. The results showed that face-to-face discussions preceded by either synchronous or asynchronous computer-mediated communication were perceived to be more enjoyable and include a greater diversity of perspectives than face-to-face discussions not preceded by computer-mediated communication.     

Global software development: Exploring socialization and face-to-face meetings in distributed strategic projects

Socialization is one means through which globally distributed teams (GDTs) can improve collaboration. However, harnessing socializing processes to support globally distributed collaboration is not easy. In particular, infrequent and limited face-to-face (F2F) contact between remote counterparts might result in difficulties in sharing norms, attitudes and behaviours. In this paper we seek to understand how dispersed teams create socialization in globally distributed settings. Based on data collected at SAP, LeCroy and Baan we conclude that, while F2F meetings are important in socializing remote counterparts, other activities and processes employed before and after F2F meetings are no less important. In particular, the paper highlights the importance of re-socializing remote counterparts throughout a project lifecycle. Re-socializing means supporting the re-acquisition of behaviours, norms and attitudes that are necessary for participation in an organization. We offer a framework in which three phases of creating, maintaining and renewing socialization in GDTs are discussed. The paper concludes by offering managers some guidelines concerning socialization in GDTs.     

Comparing distributed and face-to-face meetings for software architecture evaluation: A controlled experiment

Scenario-based methods for evaluating software architecture require a large number of stakeholders to be collocated for evaluation meetings. Collocating stakeholders is often an expensive exercise. To reduce expense, we have proposed a framework for supporting software architecture evaluation process using groupware systems. This paper presents a controlled experiment that we conducted to assess the effectiveness of one of the key activities, developing scenario profiles, of the proposed groupware-supported process of evaluating software architecture. We used a cross-over experiment involving 32 teams of three 3rd and 4th year undergraduate students. We found that the quality of scenario profiles developed by distributed teams using a groupware tool were significantly better than the quality of scenario profiles developed by face-to-face teams (p < 0.001). However, questionnaires indicated that most participants preferred the face-to-face arrangement (82%) and 60% thought the distributed meetings were less efficient. We conclude that distributed meetings for developing scenario profiles are extremely effective but that tool support must be of a high standard or participants will not find distributed meetings acceptable.

A distributed problem-solving approach to collaborative facility engineering

A framework for collaborative facility engineering is presented. The framework is based on a distributed problem-solving approach to collaborative facility engineering and employs an integration approach called Agent-Based Software Engineering as an implementation vehicle of this approach. The focal entity of this framework is a Multiagent Design Team (MDT) that comprises a collection of software agents (e.g. design software applications with a certain standard communication interface) and a design specialist, which together perform specific design tasks. Multiagent design teams are autonomous and form an organizational structure based on a federation architecture. Every multiagent design team surrenders its autonomy to a system program called facilitator, which coordinates the interaction among software agents in the federation architecture. Facilitators can be viewed as representatives of one or more teams that facilitate the exchange of design information and knowledge in support of the design tasks they perform. In the federation architecture, design specialists collaborate by exchanging design information with others via their software agents, and by identifying and resolving design conflicts by negotiation. In addition to a discussion of the framework's primary components, its realization in an integrated distributed environment for collaborative building engineering is described.