Timely and efficient facilitation of coordination of software developers' activities

Abstract

Work dependencies often exist between the developers of a software project. These dependencies frequently result in a need for coordination between the involved developers. However, developers are not always aware of these Coordination Requirements. Current methods which detect the need to coordinate rely on information which is available only after development work has been completed. This does not enable developers to act on their coordination needs. Furthermore, even if developers were aware of all Coordination Requirements, they likely would be overwhelmed by the large number and would not be able to effectively follow up directly with the developers involved in each dependent task. I will investigate a more timely method to determine Coordination Requirements in a software development team as they emerge and how to focus the developers attention on the most crucial ones. Further, I hope to prove that direct inter-personal communication is not always necessary to fulfill these requirements and gain insight on how we can develop tools that encourage cheaper forms of coordination.