The Impact of Task Structure and Negotiation Sequence on Distributed Requirements Negotiation Activity, Conflict, and Satisfaction

摘要

This paper reports the findings of an experimental study of web-based negotiations among a group of distributed stakeholders involved in the design of a complex information system. Using a web-based communication system, the stakeholders had to reach agreement on a common set of software requirements taking into account their individual preferences as well as overall constraints of available time and budget. To support such complex negotiations, the objective of our study was to analyze the impact of providing structured task and explicit negotiation sequence support to the negotiating group with respect to their activity, conflict and satisfaction. Our results show that groups following a structured task are more active than groups lacking such structure. However, the absence of negotiation sequence and structured task support leads to greater satisfaction.