Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Ta b l e 1
Comparison of three scenarios of technology support for collaborative RE
e-Mail + doc
exchange
Video conf + doc
exchange
Video conf +
interactive docs
√
√√
Co-presence
x
√
√√
Visibility
x
√
√
√
Audibility
√
√√
Contemporality
x
√
√√
Simultaneity
x
√
√
√
Sequentiality
√
√
Reviewability
x
√
√
Revisability
x
prototypes, etc., and how such representations can mediate communication between
different stakeholders. Table
1
summarises how communication is supported in
three different scenarios of collaborative technology. First, e-mail communica-
tion combined with exchange of specifications and other documents is a common
mode of collaboration between groups separated by distance. Since communica-
tion is asynchronous it enables collaboration across time zones, for example in
offshore development. However, asynchronous media such as e-mail do not pro-
vide co-presence, and visibility is limited to the documents. Communication is
sequential so it does not facilitate formation of common ground through interac-
tive dialogues, although it does have the advantage of allowing time to review
and revise documents. Video conferencing, in contrast, provides a richer com-
munication medium for partial co-presence of team members, with synchronous
audio and visual communication, although even advanced video conference sys-
tems are a considerable degradation from face-to-face communication [
17]
. The
penalty of video conferencing with document exchange is that while it builds com-
mon ground between team members, it does not integrate easily with understanding
generated from documentation. It is difficult to view and attend to documents dur-
ing a video conference so reviewability and revisability (of documents and the
video conversation) are impaired. In the third scenario, video conferencing tech-
nology is enhanced with interactive tools so team members can view and edit
documents while conversing. This ideally joins the thread of understanding gen-
erated by working on documents with video-mediated conversations; however,
maintaining the focus of attention between conversation and working on documents
requires careful management; also, review and revision time can be compromised
by the time the team spends in synchronous collaborative work. Hence a combi-
nation of approaches may be advised. Asynchronous working provides a time to
think and reflect which builds understanding of the problem using documentation,
while synchronous dialogue builds mutual understanding among team members via
conversations.
This leads to investigation of the role of different documents in RE. Since RE
briefly describe the representations which will be reviewed:
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