The paper presents results of ongoing research to support effective user involvement during systems development projects. The Collaborative Software Engineering Methodology is presented as a framework that contains mechanisms to support three layers of user involvement: selected user representatives, user groups, and the broader user community. Productivity and user participation of traditional group meetings have been limited by chauffeured facilitation and by support of single-user tools designed for analysts rather than users. The paper introduces electronic meeting systems (EMS) modeling tools designed to allow users to work in parallel to contribute directly during meetings. These tools are easy to use while containing support features traditionally associated with CASE tools. The methodology includes a sequence of requirements abstractions that users engage directly including activity models, data models, scenarios, system use eases, and prototypes. This methodology is designed to help organizations respond to today's rapidly changing information processing needs.
Various aspects of the design and use of Electronic Meeting Systems (EMS) have been investigated in laboratory and field studies, but until now no one has systematically investigated the role of EMS software on group performance. The current study compares two different EMS software tools in a controlled experiment. Dependent variables are decision quality, number of unique alternatives generated, satisfaction, and consensus. The study found that one software tool produced better quality solutions to a combination creativity and intellective task, but the other helped generate more unique alternatives. Each tool worked best on the task for which it was designed. The findings support the authors' premise that there should be a match between the EMS software tool and the task to be performed. The findings have several implications for the design of EMS software.