A 3-Dimensional relevance model for collaborative software engineering spaces

Today's large software projects are often characterised by distributed environments with numerous developers separated in space and/or time. This separation means that the common understanding and tacit knowledge that is a feature of closely colocated project teams is very hard to come by. As a consequence, relatively simple tasks such as identifying functionally related modules or finding individuals who are experts in aspects of the system become more challenging and time-consuming. This paper presents a Continuum of Relevance Index (CRI) model that uses information gathered from developer IDE interactions to generate orderings of relevant tasks, project artefacts and developers. A case study is used to demonstrate how the model can be used to attain a shared knowledge and common understanding of the extent to which tasks, artefacts and developers are relevant in a group development work context.