The Effects of Communication Mode on Distributed Requirements Negotiations

Videoconferencing is generally considered as the most appropriate medium to conduct requirements negotiations between remote stakeholders. To improve the effectiveness of distributed requirements negotiations, drawing upon the postulates of theories on media selection, we argue that a combination of lean and rich media is needed. In this paper we empirically test the hypothesis that the early resolution of uncertainties through an asynchronous lean medium can shorten the list of open issues to be negotiated over a synchronous rich channel.