Description of a User Evaluation for Synchronous Collaborative Software Engineering Tools
Carl Cook, Warwick Irwin and Neville Churcher
Department of Computer Science
University of Canterbury
Abstract
Collaborative Software Engineering (CSE) is a rapidly growing field of research, with commercial tools starting to incorporate new and novel collaborative features into their traditionally single-user products. We have undertaken an empirical evaluation with an aim to investigate the envisaged benefits of code-level collaboration, which is presented in this paper. Results of our evaluation show that for specific scenarios, collaborative tools that we have developed achieve task completion rates that are at least twice as fast as their conventional counterparts. Additionally, for a number of subjective aspects the participants were generally in favour of using the new tools. From these results, we are encouraged to continue developing our collaborative tools, and to investigate other aspects of them within the context of CSE.