Enabling social network analysis in distributed collaborative software development

Abstract

Social network analysis in software engineering attains an important role in project support as more and more projects have to be conducted in globally-distributed settings. Distributed project participants and software artifacts, such as requirements specifications, architectural models, and source code, can seriously impede efficient collaboration. However, collaborative software development platforms bear the potential information for facilitating distributed projects through adequate information supply. Hence, we developed a method and tool implementation for applying social network analysis techniques in globally-distributed settings and thus provide superior information on expertise location, co-worker activities, and personnel development.