Using a groupware space for distributed requirements engineering

Requirements engineering (RE) is a necessary part of the software development process, as it helps customers and designers identify necessary system requirements. If these stakeholders are separated by distance, we argue that a distributed groupware environment supporting cooperative requirements engineering process must be supplied that allows them to negotiate software requirements. Such a groupware environment must support aspects of joint work relevant to requirements negotiation: synchronous and asynchronous collaboration, telepresence, and teledata. It should also add explicit support for a structured RE process, which includes the team's ability to discuss multiple perspectives during requirements acquisition and traceability. We chose the TeamWave software platform as an environment that supplied the basic collaboration capabilities, and tailored it to fit the specific needs of RE.