Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Requirements Engineering |
| Subtitle of host publication | Foundation for Software Quality. REFSQ 2023 |
| Editors | Alessio Ferrari, Birgit Penzenstadler |
| Place of Publication | Cham |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH |
| Pages | 39-55 |
| Number of pages | 17 |
| ISBN (electronic) | 978-3-031-29786-1 |
| ISBN (print) | 9783031297854 |
| Publication status | Published - 4 Apr 2023 |
| Event | 29th International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality, REFSQ 2023 - Barcelona, Spain Duration: 17 Apr 2023 → 20 Apr 2023 |
Publication series
| Name | Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) |
|---|---|
| Volume | 13975 LNCS |
| ISSN (Print) | 0302-9743 |
| ISSN (electronic) | 1611-3349 |
Abstract
[Context and motivation] The success of software projects depends on developing a system that satisfies the stakeholders’ wishes and needs according to their mental models of the intended system. However, stakeholders may have different or misaligned mental models of the same system, resulting in conflicting requirements. For this reason, aligned mental models and thus a shared understanding of the project vision is essential for the success of software projects. [Question/problem] While it is already challenging to achieve shared understanding in synchronous contexts, such as meetings, it is even more challenging when only asynchronous contexts, like messaging services, are possible. When multiple stakeholders are involved from different locations and time zones, primarily asynchronous communication occurs. Despite the frequent use of software tools, like Confluence, to support asynchronous contexts, their use for the development of a shared understanding has hardly been analyzed. [Principal ideas/results] In this paper, we propose five concepts to help stakeholders develop a shared understanding in asynchronous communication contexts. We assess the adaptability of three existing software tools to our concepts, adapt these software tools accordingly, and develop our own prototype that implements all five concepts. In an experiment with 30 participants, we evaluate these four software tools and compare them to a control group that had no support in developing a shared understanding. [Contribution] Our results show the suitability of our concepts, as the participants using our concepts were able to achieve a higher level of shared understanding compared to the control group.
Keywords
- asynchronous communication, requirements engineering, shared understanding
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Mathematics(all)
- Theoretical Computer Science
- Computer Science(all)
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Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality. REFSQ 2023. ed. / Alessio Ferrari; Birgit Penzenstadler. Cham: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2023. p. 39-55 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 13975 LNCS).
Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Research › peer review
}
TY - GEN
T1 - Supporting Shared Understanding in Asynchronous Communication Contexts
AU - Nagel, Lukas
AU - Karras, Oliver
AU - Amiri, Seyed Mahdi
AU - Schneider, Kurt
N1 - Funding Information: Acknowledgement. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemein-schaft (DFG) under Grant No.: 289386339, project ViViUse.
PY - 2023/4/4
Y1 - 2023/4/4
N2 - [Context and motivation] The success of software projects depends on developing a system that satisfies the stakeholders’ wishes and needs according to their mental models of the intended system. However, stakeholders may have different or misaligned mental models of the same system, resulting in conflicting requirements. For this reason, aligned mental models and thus a shared understanding of the project vision is essential for the success of software projects. [Question/problem] While it is already challenging to achieve shared understanding in synchronous contexts, such as meetings, it is even more challenging when only asynchronous contexts, like messaging services, are possible. When multiple stakeholders are involved from different locations and time zones, primarily asynchronous communication occurs. Despite the frequent use of software tools, like Confluence, to support asynchronous contexts, their use for the development of a shared understanding has hardly been analyzed. [Principal ideas/results] In this paper, we propose five concepts to help stakeholders develop a shared understanding in asynchronous communication contexts. We assess the adaptability of three existing software tools to our concepts, adapt these software tools accordingly, and develop our own prototype that implements all five concepts. In an experiment with 30 participants, we evaluate these four software tools and compare them to a control group that had no support in developing a shared understanding. [Contribution] Our results show the suitability of our concepts, as the participants using our concepts were able to achieve a higher level of shared understanding compared to the control group.
AB - [Context and motivation] The success of software projects depends on developing a system that satisfies the stakeholders’ wishes and needs according to their mental models of the intended system. However, stakeholders may have different or misaligned mental models of the same system, resulting in conflicting requirements. For this reason, aligned mental models and thus a shared understanding of the project vision is essential for the success of software projects. [Question/problem] While it is already challenging to achieve shared understanding in synchronous contexts, such as meetings, it is even more challenging when only asynchronous contexts, like messaging services, are possible. When multiple stakeholders are involved from different locations and time zones, primarily asynchronous communication occurs. Despite the frequent use of software tools, like Confluence, to support asynchronous contexts, their use for the development of a shared understanding has hardly been analyzed. [Principal ideas/results] In this paper, we propose five concepts to help stakeholders develop a shared understanding in asynchronous communication contexts. We assess the adaptability of three existing software tools to our concepts, adapt these software tools accordingly, and develop our own prototype that implements all five concepts. In an experiment with 30 participants, we evaluate these four software tools and compare them to a control group that had no support in developing a shared understanding. [Contribution] Our results show the suitability of our concepts, as the participants using our concepts were able to achieve a higher level of shared understanding compared to the control group.
KW - asynchronous communication
KW - requirements engineering
KW - shared understanding
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85152514106&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.15488/16373
DO - 10.15488/16373
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85152514106
SN - 9783031297854
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 39
EP - 55
BT - Requirements Engineering
A2 - Ferrari, Alessio
A2 - Penzenstadler, Birgit
PB - Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
CY - Cham
T2 - 29th International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality, REFSQ 2023
Y2 - 17 April 2023 through 20 April 2023
ER -