Using Multimedia to Support Cooperative Software Development

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to propose a global solution to support Cooperative Soft- ware Development (CSD) through a multimedia environment. CSD systems have as main goal to enable several users connected over a network to work together in order to develop software products. They have to solve problems such as: coherence main- tenance of the software project through the distributed system by managing possible conflicts between local versions of each group member and, above all, promote the necessary mechanisms for the inter-group awareness and integrity. We introduce here the strategies of our own CSD prototype: a computer- supported cooperative work architecture for software development. It enables a group of developers ( 2 to 4), possibly located at remate places and connected over network, to develop software together. A cooperative multimedia editing envi- ronment is available for the whole Development Cycle, enclosing mechanisms of computer-conferencing (text, audio and video communications).