A Need-Based Collaboration Classification Framework

Research in collaboration has yielded a large number of tools and environments. A number of classification frameworks exist that organize these contributions, but none of them are comprehensive enough; they focus either on a particular aspect of collaboration or on the specific mechanism that the tools follow. We have developed a new framework that is based on the collaboration needs of a developer. Specifically, we have adapted Maslow's hierarchy of needs to create a hierarchy of collaboration needs in the software development world. These collaboration needs can be broadly classified into basic needs, enhanced needs and comfort needs, according to which collaborative tools and environments can be categorized. In this paper, we first introduce the framework, and then use it to identify the collaboration needs that Eclipse and its plug-ins satisfy. We also identify further research directions that would enhance Eclipse's ability as a vehicle for collaboration