Improving requirements engineering processes in very small software enterprises through the use of a collaborative application

Very small software enterprises (up to 25 employees) represent the most important software task force around the world. Several researches report these organizations remain a low success rate in development projects, because they implement inefficient mechanisms to support requirements engineering practices. This paper presents a collaborative software application, named Software Requirements Manager (SRM), which automates several requirements engineering practices. This tool acts as a communication and coordination space for team members. SRM has been used in a software development academic scenario during the last three years. The obtained results show that SRM can significantly improve the projects´ success rate by facilitating the collaboration among members of the development team.