Supporting Distributed Software Teams with 3D Virtual Worlds Design and prototype of a 3D virtual world environment for virtual collaboration in software engineering

Today, software engineering projects are prevalently performed by development teams that are geographically distributed over two or more locations. However, this trend also introduces a number of complications when it comes to communication between stakeholders, coordination of work, and control of the project. This thesis aims to develop a prototype of an environment in a 3D virtual world which supports distributed software teams. In this environment, virtual team members share a common space, communicate through multiple communication channels and have better team awareness, which ultimately helps them to complete software projects. The theoretical part of this thesis investigates the changes that have evolved in software engineering and software project management disciplines as a consequence of distribution of software team members. Furthermore, it elaborates the complexities within these teams as well as different technologies that have been employed in order to connect geographically distant co-workers. Finally, the virtual world technology and its opportunities in the context of distributed software projects are presented. The practical part is based on the findings of the theoretical part of the thesis. Based on the issues of virtual software teams that are discovered, one part of the requirements for a virtual world tool is defined. Together with the requirements of the software process itself, these requirements are implemented into a prototype that should enable distributed software teams to perform their work more efficiently and with greater ease. The prototype is based on Sun’s Project Wonderland. A user study was conducted which shows that environments in virtual worlds can support the software development and project management disciplines in distributed settings. Richer and numerous communication possibilities, different applications and the ability to work with team colleagues in a shared space help distributed software teams to overcome the barriers of physical separation. The only prerequisite for the successful use of such environments is their high performance.