Abstract

This major report presents a practical study, in which the principles of Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) are applied to elicitation of software requirements. For the sake of practical work, a commercially available software system called, GTCS (Groupware Tele Communication Software) is used. Two major areas of research are summarised in this report. One is software requirement specification and the other is Computer Supported Cooperative Work. In eliciting the requirements of proposed software system, we identify three categories of participants: client, software developer, and typical intended end users of the software system. While developing the software requirement document, these three people will interact with each other. It is proposed that a group of co-workers will organise themselves into several small teams. In order to facilitate their inter working, the work space on the screen will be based on three windows, one for the private use, one for the local use within a team, and third for the global view within the group. Support for the groupwork based on three windows is discussed in this report for the above purposes. As part of this report, the GTCS software system was implemented in a PC environment. Its application to the software requirement elicitation problem is demonstrated through an example. Limitation of GTCS in its application of software engineering are analyzed and presented for the purposes of future product enhancements. Applications of Computer Supported Cooperative work to software engineering is a problem with too large a scope for a single project like this. Thus, potential avenues for further investigations are also given in this report.