Audio Recording in Software Engineering

In software engineering projects, valuable knowledge is exchanged in informal, unplanned conversations such as watercooler discussions. Projects can benefit if this knowledge is externalized and made accessible to all project participants. Previous solutions for recording project conversation generally do not cover informal communication due to the lack of portability and widespread availability of their audio recording infrastructure. They also do not capture the context of a conversation, which makes it hard to find specific information in a large number of recordings. We propose a solution that overcomes both limitations by employing mobile devices as an ubiquitous recording infrastructure that also enables the user to bridge the gap between informal communication and formal project model elements. The mobile recording application can establish links between a conversation recording in our central audio repository and project model elements in our project management and CASE tool. Project participants can use the application to capture audio and context, create new work items for other participants, engage in asynchronous audio discussions and review project artifacts. We evaluate each of these use cases in several ongoing case studies.