Distributed Requirements Elicitation Using a Spatial Hypertext Wiki

In Global Software Development (GSD), distributed stakeholders (e.g. team members, customers, etc) have to collaborate and communicate in an efficient and effective way to share, create and discuss knowledge. Nowadays, a challenge is to provide integrated collaborative tools that implement creativity techniques which allow distributed stakeholders to externalize their knowledge through brainstorming and share and store knowledge in a common repository. The Requirements Elicitation (RE) process is a clear example where this kind of support is needed in the software development process. This paper presents the Spatial Hypertext Wiki as a collaborative tool for supporting creativity in the RE process. The Spatial Hypertext characteristics of the wiki provide a virtual board where distributed stakeholders can share, brainstorm, negotiate, or prioritize the knowledge involved in RE.