Requirements-driven collaboration: A framework and patterns from a case study

Requirements-driven Collaboration
A framework and patterns from a case study

Sabrina Marczak
sabrina.marczak@pucrs.br

Daniela Damian
danielad@cs.uvic.ca

mercoledì 6 febbraio 13

A bit of background ﬁrst ...


Who am I? 3

• Education:
• PhD: University of Victoria,
Canada (2006-2011)

• Master: PUCRS, Brazil
(2002-2003)

• Bachelor: PUCRS, Brazil
(1996-2001)

Research visit to Collab group - UniBA
Sabrina Marczak - February 2013


Who am I? 4

• Industry:
• Dell Brazil: 2001-2005
• Microsoft: 2005-2006
• ISD Brazil: 2005-2006



Where do I come from? 5

• Porto Alegre:
• About 2 million people
• Founded by Germans,
Italians, and Polish
immigrants

• Business city
• Mercosul



• PUCRS:
• 30 thousand students
• 50 undegrad programs
• 41 graduate programs




• Tecnopuc:



And the talk itself ...


Software development 10



Requirements Engineering 11

Conception Planning
R. Analyst P. Manager

Design Development
Architect Developer

Testing Deployment
Tester Developer



Requirements Engineering 11

Conception Planning
R. Analyst P. Manager
R. Analyst

Design Development Requirement
Architect Developer Tester Architect

Testing Deployment
Tester Developer
Developer P. Manager



Collaboration 12

Coordination
Communication
Awareness
Dependency

R. Analyst R. Analyst

Requirement Requirement
Tester Architect Tester Architect

Developer P. Manager Developer P. Manager



Collaboration 12

Coordination
Communication
Awareness
Dependency

R. Analyst R. Analyst
Requirements-driven
Requirement
collaborationRequirement
Tester Architect Tester Architect

Developer P. Manager Developer P. Manager



Talk outline 13

• Framework to study RDC
• RDC patterns from a case study
• Implications of this work



> Framework 14



Framework 15

R1 R2



Framework 15

R. Analyst Developer
R. Analyst

Developer

Developer Developer
Developer
Architect Architect

Tester Tester
Tester

R1 R2

Requirements-centric team


Framework 15

R. Analyst

Developer

Developer Developer
Developer
Architect Architect

Tester Tester
Tester

R1 R2

Requirements-centric social network


Framework 15

R. Analyst

Developer

Developer Developer
Developer
Architect Architect

Tester Tester
Tester

R1 R2

Social network measures: e.g., degree


Framework 16

Social network measures

• Sociogram • Clique

• Size • Component

• Density • Reachability

• Ties statistics • Cutpoint

• Centralization • Degree

• Core-periphery • Brokerage

• Ties reciprocity • Socio-technical
congruence


Framework 17



> RDC patterns 18

• Case study
• Data collected
• Patterns



Case study 19

• APP team
• Maintenance of legacy systems
• Team distribution (44 members)
• Brazil (38), USA (5), India (1)
• PM (2), Req Analyst (4), Dev Lead (5), Dev (20), Test
Lead (1), Testers (7), Business Partner (5)

• New to the product and as a team itself
• Reverse engineering activity


Case study 20

• Well-deﬁned team and communication
structures
• 20 requirements Business
Partner
Manager

• 4 sets of dependencies Business
Partner
Requirements
Analyst

Development
Test Leader
Leader

Project
Manager

Developer Tester



Data collected 21

document contextual
inspection information
UCInet 6.0
team members
SNA
requirements measures

2nd 4th

time
1st 3rd

Knowledge
Communication
about the
Awareness
project
interviews Questionnaire
Observations Research visit to Collab group - UniBA


Data collected 22



Data collected 23

• UCINet

https://sites.google.com/site/ucinetsoftware/home



Patterns 24

• ‘Communication Patterns’ in requirements-
driven collaboration
• Recurring repetition of the same communication
behavior across the social networks of
dependent requirements



Patterns 25

Collaboration driven by interdependent requirements
includes signiﬁcant cross-functional interactions



Patterns 25

Collaboration driven by interdependent requirements
includes signiﬁcant cross-functional interactions

45
40
40
35
35

30

25

20 Within‐teams
16 17
Cross‐teams
15
11
9
10 7
5
1
0
Requirements Requirements Communica8on of Coordina8on of
Nego8a8on Clariﬁc8on Changes Ac8vi8es



Patterns 26

Actual communication structure in the project is very
different from the planned communication structure



Patterns 26

Actual communication structure in the project is very
different from the planned communication structure

Business

• Decentralized networks
Partner
Manager

Business
Partner
Requirements

• Coordination through back
Analyst

Development

channels
Test Leader
Leader

Project
Manager

Developer Tester



Patterns 27

Core subgroups of members originally assigned to
work on the requirements closely collaborate with
each other



Patterns 27

Core subgroups of members originally assigned to
work on the requirements closely collaborate with
each other

• Formed primarily by
Requirements Analyst 3

Tester 1

• requirements analysts Requirements Analyst 2

and testers
•
Test Leader

assigned members Developer Tester 2

Dev Leader



Patterns 28

The absence of members initially assigned to work on
interdependent requirements is most likely to disrupt
collaboration among these requirements



Patterns 28

The absence of members initially assigned to work on
interdependent requirements is most likely to disrupt
collaboration among these requirements

• Essential members
Developer 1 Developer 2

Dev Leader 1

• knowledge about

requirements Developer 3

• ability to point out who was Dev Leader 2

Tester 2
working on related tasks Requirements Analyst 3

Tester 1



Patterns 29

New hires are isolated from the rest in the
requirements-driven collaboration



Patterns 29

New hires are isolated from the rest in the
requirements-driven collaboration

• Mostly developers Test Leader Requirements Analyst 1

• Corroborates that Tester 1

newcomers have
Dev Leader
Developer 1

difﬁculties in knowing
how and when to ask
Developer 2
Tester 2

questions Requirements Analyst 3



Patterns 30

• Brokerage
A broker is someone who connects
those that are otherwise disconnected



Patterns 30

• Brokerage
R1 R2

John Kyle

Jack

Peter Kate

Kim
Jim
Matt
David



Patterns 30

• Brokerage
R1 R2 R1 R2

John Kyle John Kyle

Jack Jack

Peter Kate Peter Kate

Kim Kim
Jim Jim
Matt Matt
David David



Patterns 31

Coordinator: b
a c
a
Consultant: b
c
b
Gatekeeper: A
c
A
Representative: c
b

Liaison: a b c


Patterns 32

Most of the brokers work on both requirements



Patterns 32

Most of the brokers work on both requirements

R1 R2

John Kyle

JANE

Peter Kate

Kim
Jim
Matt
David



Patterns 33

Brokerage is predominant in certain types of
communication



Patterns 33

Brokerage is predominant in certain types of
communication

• Communication of changes
• Coordination of activities
• Requirements clariﬁcation


Patterns 34

Distance does not matter for brokerage



Patterns 34

Distance does not matter for brokerage

• One person emerged as
the most frequent broker: Jane

Jane, USA-based Dev Lead
Kyle
Matt



Patterns 35

Knowledge and experience are determinants for
brokerage



Patterns 35

Knowledge and experience are determinants for
brokerage

• Familiarity with the most active broker (Jane)
• Knowledge about the project and the
company



Patterns 36

• Socio-technical congruence
“Fit” between coordination
needs established by technical For each pair of people with a
technical dependency in a network
dependencies and actual
coordination in the project

Is there actual
communication?

Yes No

Satisﬁed
Gap
coord. need



Patterns 37

Requirements
Analyst

Development
Test Leader
Leader

Developer Tester



Patterns 37

Requirements
Analyst

Development
Test Leader
Leader

For each pair of people with a
technical dependency in a network

Developer Tester
Are these roles
supposed to
communicate?
Yes No

Is there actual Is there actual
communication? communication?

Yes No Yes No

Aligned Backchannel
Real gap False gap
communication communication



Coordination needs (CN)

Requirements
Analyst
Patterns RA

--
DL D1 D2 T

Development
Leader --

Developer 1 --

Developer 2 --

Tester --

actual Coordination (AC)
RA DL D1 D2 T

Requirements
Analyst --
Development
Leader --

Developer 1 --

Developer 2 --
Tester -- Sabrina Marczak - February 2013



Requirements
Analyst
Patterns RA

--
DL D1 D2 T

Development
Leader --

Developer 1 --

Developer 2 --

Tester --

actual Coordination (AC) coordination alignment (CA)
RA DL D1 D2 T RA DL D1 D2 T

Requirements
Analyst -- Requirements
Analyst
-- x x
Development
Leader -- Development
leader x -- x
Developer 1 -- Developer 1 x x --

Developer 2 -- Developer 2 --

Tester -- Tester x x --



Requirements
Analyst
Patterns RA

--
DL D1 D2 T

Requirements
Analyst

Development
Leader --
Development
Test Leader
Leader
Developer 1 --

Developer 2 --
Developer Tester

Tester --


Requirements
Analyst
-- x x
Development
leader x -- x




Coordination needs (CN) role-based calculation (CN’)

Requirements
Analyst
Patterns RA

--
DL D1 D2 T

Requirements
Analyst
RA

--
DL D1 D2 T

Development
Development
Leader -- Leader --


Tester
Tester -- --


Requirements
Analyst
-- x x
Development
leader x -- x




Patterns 39

Testers predominant in initiating backchannel
communication

Requirements
Analyst

Development
Test Leader
Leader

Developer Tester



Patterns 40

Requirements clariﬁcation and communication of
changes predominate in backchannel communication

Requirements
Analyst

Development
Test Leader
Leader

Developer Tester



Patterns 40

Requirements clariﬁcation and communication of
changes predominate in backchannel communication

Requirements Communication of changes
Analyst

Communication of changes

Development
Test Leader
Leader

Requirements clarification

Developer Tester
Requirements clarification



Patterns 41

Physical separation did not stop backchannel
communication

Requirements
Analyst

Development
Test Leader
Leader

Developer Tester



Patterns 41

Physical separation did not stop backchannel
communication

Requirements
Analyst

Development
Test Leader
Leader

Building 1

Building 2

Developer Tester



Patterns 42

• More-detailed measure to identify
coordination congruence
• Backchannel communication

• False gaps

• Alignment of actual coordination behavior
with organization structure



> Implications 43

• Researchers: mechanism to investigate
RDC at a ﬁne-grained level
• Tool designers: develop tools to support
RDC
Expertise seeking, emergent members, coordination diagnose

• Practitioners: gain insights about current
processes and conditions



Implications 44

Our framework can help people design improved

- RE processes,
- collaborative tool support, and
- communication infrastructure

in organizations to enable effective coordination in
software projects



Replication 45

• Agile team
• Requirements are volatile per nature

• Collaboration is constant

• Communication happens F2F

• Small teams

Irum Inayat, PhD candidate
Siti Salwa Salim, Dr.



> More about RDC at 46

• RE ’07: Preliminary patterns
• RE ’08: Brokerage
• Book Ch. ’10: RDC framework
• RE ’11: Roles and communication
• ICSE ’13: Domain knowledge


More about RDC at 47

• RE ’07: Collaboration patterns and impact of
distance on awareness




• RE ’08: Brokerage

Brokerage predominant in certain
types of communication

Distance didn’t matter

Knowledge and experience as
determinants for brokerage




• Book ch. ’10: RDC framework




• RE ’11: Roles and communication structures




• ICSE ’13: Domain knowledge and hierarchical
control structures in coordination

Communication ties that do not follow task assignments
but are according to hierarchical structure



> References 52

[RE ‘07] Daniela Damian, Sabrina Marczak, and Irwin Kwan, “Collaboration Patterns and the
Impact of Distance on Awareness in Requirements-Centred Social Networks”, In: IEEE Proc.
International Requirements Engineering Conference, New Delhi, India, 59-68, 2007.

[RE ‘08] Sabrina Marczak, Daniela Damian, Ulrike Stege, and Adrian Schroeter, “Information
Brokers in Requirements-Dependency Social Networks”, In: IEEE Proc. International
Requirements Engineering Conference, Barcelona, Spain, 53-62, September 2008.

[Book ch. ‘10] Daniela Damian, Irwin Kwan, and Sabrina Marczak, Requirements-Driven
Collaboration: Leveraging the Invisible Relationships between Requirements and People,
Collaborative Software Engineering, Mistrik, I., Grundy, J., van der Hoek, A, Whitehead, J. (Eds.),
Chapter 3, pages 57-76, Springer-Verlag, London, England, March 2010.

[RE ‘11] Sabrina Marczak and Daniela Damian, “How Interaction Between Roles Shapes the
Communication Structure in Requirements-Driven Collaboration”, In: IEEE Proc. International
Requirements Engineering Conference, Trento, Italy, 47-56, 2011.

[ICSE ’13] Daniela Damian, Remko Helms, Irwin Kwan, Sabrina Marczak, and Benjamin
Koelewijn, “The Role of Domain Knowledge and Hierarchical Control Structures in Socio-
Technical Coordination”, In: IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering, San
Francisco, USA, May 2013 (To appear).



Thanks for your attention!

Questions?
Comments?

Presented by
Sabrina Marczak
sabrina.marczak@pucrs.br
http://www.inf.pucrs.br/sabrina.marczak/


Requirements-driven collaboration: A framework and patterns from a case study

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