CoSDEES: A framework for developing CSD environments for educational settings

The recent drift towards the use of Collaborative Software Development (CSD) practices in software industry may prove to be an escalating movement towards changing software development philosophies. Consequently, research is in progress in developing related computing technologies for supporting the collaborative engagements of software developers. Eventually, it is essential that software engineering curriculum also focuses on developing collaborative programming skills of the students. Fostering collaborative learning and programming competencies of students through collaborative software development education at undergraduate level would facilitate their amalgamation into the team-oriented and intensively-collaborative, software development industry. In this paper, we propose a framework, CoSDEES, for the collaborative engagements of students involved in software development, in the form of CSD Activity WorkSpace. The proposed framework is based on Activity Theory. Furthermore, we also propose a comprehensive set of requirement specifications for the CSD environment that manifest the proposed framework. These specifications can be used as a set of guidelines for implementing CSD environments in educational settings. The primary aim of this research is to augment the collaborative activities of students engaged in software development, through the usage of the proposed collaborative software development environments.