Introducing a GSS-based negotiation approach at TACOM

The Next Generation Software Engineering Technology Area (NextGen), part of the USA Army Tank-Automotive Armaments Command (TACOM), is an emerging key player in software development. Constant growth and improvement is essential to increase NextGen´s involvement in the field. One of the tools used by NextGen to aid with growth and improvement is the yearly TownHall meeting. The TownHall is an exhaustive, multi-day meeting with intensive negotiations concerning current customers, desired budgets, schedules, resources, and associate competencies. To help facilitate these negotiations, NextGen chose to test Group Support System (GSS), a negotiations software system. While the goal was for NextGen to ultimately benefit from the implementation of the software, the research and testing conducted provided valuable feedback for the Group Support System software. The paper illustrates the steps involved in effectively incorporating the new negotiation process into NextGen.