Enabling Automatic Process-aware Collaboration Support in Software Engineering Projects

Software Engineering (SE) remains an immature discipline and SE projects continue to be challenging due to their dynamic nature. One problematic aspect is the coordination of and collaboration among the many individuals working in such projects. Numerous efforts to establish software engineering environments (SEEs) to address this aspect have been made. However, since SE projects depend on individuals and their intentions, their collaboration is still performed manually to a large degree. Manual tasks are subject to human error in omission or commission that can result in communication breakdowns which are compounded within multi-project environments. This paper describes a synergistic approach that extends a process-aware information system with contextual awareness and integrates this in a SEE. This enables the system to support the users with active and passive information and support collaboration. Context information is presented to the users, providing them with process navigability information relating to their current activities. Additionally, automated information distribution improves awareness about the actions of others. Finally, this approach enables the automatic initiation and governance of follow-up activities caused by changes implied by other activities.