Cooperation Support in a Software Development Environment

Work on computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) has provided tools that let several users work concurrently on objects, e.g. collaborative editors. A general SDE will not include such tools, but it should allow and support use of CSCW tools on objects handled by the SDE. More important is support for situations where users knowingly work on common objects in isolation for a period before the updates are shared with the rest of the group. If several developers are going to work on the same objects over a period, their work needs to be coordinated to avoid con icts. An SDE should allow several policies for coordination, ranging from strict scheduling of work to allow concurrent work but require merging before the results are made available to others. These policies can be supported by the system by mechanisms that prohibit concurrent updates and by giving one user access to the temporary copies of other users.