Browsing by Author "Shaw, Mildred"

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    AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF FACILITATION OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED DISTRIBUTED REQUIREMENTS NEGOTIATIONS
    (2001-03-30) Damian, Daniela; Eberlein, Armin; Woodward, Brian; Shaw, Mildred; Gaines, Brian
    Group facilitation is an important element of group approaches to Requirements Engineering (RE). The facilitation in 'traditional' face-to-face groups is challenged by the increased globalization of the software industry. Thorough empirical investigation of human facilitation in computer-mediated requirements meetings is needed. This paper presents findings about the facilitation of distributed group settings in a controlled environment. Three professional facilitators mediate 15 three-person groups negotiating software requirements. Facilitation in face-to-face meetings is contrasted with four group settings in which the facilitator is physically separated from the group or co-located with key stakeholders. Rich qualitative and behavioral data enables an understanding of differences and similarities in the facilitation of the distributed groups and of aspects that were detrimental or beneficial to their facilitation. The empirical evidence indicates a reduced richness of social behaviors in computer-mediated group settings which (1) made the group facilitation problematic but also (2) enabled certain facilitation support in the medium itself.
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    GROUP PERFORMANCE AND DISTRIBUTED REQUIREMENTS NEGOTIATIONS
    (2000-03-22) Herlea-Damian, Dana; Eberlein, Armin; Shaw, Mildred; Gaines, Brian
    In recent years, distributed development has become more and more common practice. As a result, investigations into the efficacy of distributed meeting systems in supporting group work in requirements engineering are needed. This paper reports on the results of a laboratory experiment in which video-conferencing and computer support were used in requirements negotiation. The study used a requirements negotiation task and compared the performance of local groups to those in four distributed configurations of the design team. Contrary to the belief that face-to-face contact increases performance, our findings suggest that groups in face-to-face meetings performed no better than the electronically mediated groups. Moreover, we identified a particular distributed group configuration that significantly improved performance across all distributed conditions and was qualitatively more conducive to requirements negotiation than face-to-face meetings. The results suggest that the electronic mediation reduced the transmission of socio-emotional cues in the interaction, thus enabling groups to have a more rational approach to conflict resolution in requirements engineering.
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    A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF DISTRIBUTED REQUIREMENTS NEGOTIATION
    (2000-08-30) Herlea Damian, Daniela; Shaw, Mildred; Gaines, Brian
    This paper addresses requirements conflicts, their resolution through negotiation and the investigation of such processes in distributed communication settings. It proposes a multi-disciplinary research approach to the study of distributed requirements negotiation. This approach builds on 'best practice' models in the research fields of requirements engineering, soft systems methodologies, study of groups with technology, negotiation behavior, group interaction analysis, and behavioral and social sciences. Preliminary results of the implementation of this approach are presented and future work is discussed.