Assessing communication media richness in requirements negotiation

A critical claim in software requirements negotiation regards the assertion that group performances improve when a medium with different richness level is used. Accordingly, the authors have conducted a study to compare traditional face-to-face communication, the richest medium and two less rich communication media, namely a distributed three-dimensional virtual environment and a text-based structured chat. This comparison has been performed with respect to the time needed to accomplish a negotiation. Furthermore, as the only assessment of the time could not be meaningful, the authors have also analysed the media effect on the issues arisen in the negotiation process and the quality of the negotiated software requirements.