State of Practice of User-Developer Communication in Large-Scale IT Projects - Results of an Expert Interview Series

[Context and motivation] User participation in software development is considered to be essential for successful software systems. Especially missing direct communication between users and developers can cause various issues in large-scale IT projects.[Question/Problem] We want to understand current practices of user–developer communication in large-scale IT projects, the factors for, and consequences of communication gaps, and what experts suggest to prevent them. [Principal ideas/results]: We conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with twelve experts. The experts work on the coordination of Business and IT and describe their experiences gained in 69 large-scale IT projects. The analysis of our interviews showed that direct user–developer communication is limited and that no commonly used method for the user–developer communication in the design and implementation activity exists. [Contribution]: The interviews helped us to understand current practices and issues resulting from missing communication. Furthermore, we can confirm the need for a method enhancing user–developer-communication in large--scale IT projects.