Towards enhanced automated support for collaborative software requirements management

The development of information systems is not merely a difficult technological challenge, but is also a complex social process within which the effectiveness of communication between stakeholders is vital to a successful outcome. In particular, the communication of software requirements is extremely problematic. This paper is founded on the proposition that, because the System Requirements Specification (SRS) is a highly dynamic document that grows and evolves throughout an IS development project, and is of interest in a variety of ways to a multi-disciplinary and potentially distributed team of stakeholders, its management ought to be a collaborative process supported by an automated tool. Furthermore, such a tool must anticipate and consider communication issues that arise within multi-disciplinary teams. We argue that most commercial requirements management tools presently available do not provide adequate support for communication and collaboration within multi-disciplinary teams. In view of the shortcomings of commercial tools, we present a series of recommendations that aim to guide tool developers towards the provision of enhanced automated support for collaborative software requirements management.