Group facilitation is an important element of group approaches torequirements engineering (RE). The facilitation in traditionalface-to-face groups is challenged by the increased globalization of thesoftware industry. Thorough empirical investigation of humanfacilitation in computer-mediated requirements meetings is needed. Thispaper presents findings about the facilitation of distributed groupsettings in a controlled environment. Three professional facilitatorsmediate 15 three-person groups negotiating software requirements.Facilitation in face-to-face meetings is contrasted with four groupsettings in which the facilitator is physically separated from the groupor co-located with key stakeholders. Rich qualitative and behavioraldata enables an understanding of differences and similarities in thefacilitation of the distributed groups and of aspects that weredetrimental or beneficial to their facilitation. The empirical evidenceindicates a reduced richness of social behaviors in computer-mediatedgroup settings which: made the group facilitation problematic; but alsoenabled certain facilitation support in the medium itself
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