Computer support for distributed asynchronous software design teams: experimental results on creativity and quality

Previous research has indicated that the creative task of deciding upon the initial specijcations for a sojtware SySfem can benefit from a structured process to guide group interaction in Face-to-Face meetings, and can benejlt from computer support. This 2x2 experiment is the Jrst to look at the joint effects of a distributed asynchronous computer conferencing mode of communication (CC, as compared to Face to Face), and a structured process, on sojtware design outcomes. Subjects were teams of graduate students in computer science and business, who designed an automated post of&e as a course assignment. Though the quality of solution produced by the CC groups was judged to be higher, it was not significantly so. However, the CC groups were considerably more creative. There were no main effects for the structured/unstructured factor, nor an-v signi$cant interactions. One approach is to provide support for design through the use of group support systems [16,33,10]. In this paper, we report on an experiment which investigated the usefulness of computer-conferencing to support design groups working (1) on the early stages of design (2) in a distributed asynchronous environment. Asynchronous refers to the dimension of time -at different times -while distributed refers to the dimension of space -at different maces. Thus, members of distributed asynchronous groups “meet” or communicate with one another at different times, from different places.