A study of collaborative software development using groupware tools

The experimental results of a collaborative problem solving and program development model that takes into consideration the cognitive and social activities that occur during software development is presented in this paper. This collaborative model is based on the Dual Common Model that focuses on individual cognitive aspects of problem solving and programming. The Dual Common Model, shown to improve the problem solving and programming skills of individual programmers (Deek, 1997), was extended to integrate groupware needs. The model was tested using a groupware tool called Groove. The study includes four conditions: Groove and the collaborative model, Groove alone, the collaborative model alone, and neither groove nor the collaborative model. The subjects were students of a graduate course in object oriented programming at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.