SEGWorld: a WWW-based infrastructure to support the development of shared software engineering artifacts

Software engineering tasks, during both development and maintenance, typically involve teamwork supported by computers. Team members rarely work on isolated computers; networked computers are commonly used. An underlying assumption of our research is that software engineering teams will work more effectively if adequately supported by network-based groupware technology. This research is investigating the provision of such network-based support for software engineering teams. The immediate objective is to provide WWW-based support, in the form of shared information spaces, specifically for students working on Software Engineering Group (SEG) projects in the Department of Computer Science at Durham. The long term objectives are to develop more flexible support for group working among university students and their staff supervisors for project work. This paper reports on our development and use, over a two year period, of SEGWorld-a WWW based infrastructure incorporating shared information spaces. Hypotheses relating to the student use of the infrastructure and shared information spaces have been formulated. Results of the use of this WWW-based infrastructure are presented.