What is Collaborative Software Development?

Building software applications requires a team of computer professionals who understand both technology and business requirements. Collaborative software development is a development technique that teams computer engineers with business experts. This approach is standard practice for most modern development, including Extreme Programming (XP), Agile Development, and SCRUM.

Collaborative software development can be accomplished by sharing company documents and project plans from a centralized location. An example of this type of software sharing is the use of Microsoft Office® suite. These products allow teams to interact with shared documents simultaneously, which allows collaboration among developers.

Many companies use offshore development teams to build custom computer applications. This remote development approach requires extensive collaboration between the business and the foreign development group. Collaborative software development tools can assist geographically distant teams because it provides a standard approach to sharing ideas and information.

Microsoft Project® is program management software tool designed to track the specific tasks of a project. This software allows these tasks to be shared with teams across an organization.

The manifesto for agile software development is an example of a documented approach for collaborative software development. This technique was created by many of the pioneers in computer software design and development. The intent of the manifesto was to define and document the best practices for developing computer software today.

Many tools and applications can assist an in creating a collaborative software development team. These enable the sharing of ideas, software code, and documents among multiple teams. The products can provide quick access to documents, which can be viewed and modified by the people in a project team.

Collaborative problem solving can resolve complex business problems and is often based on co-workers brainstorming ideas. This approach requires an open dialog among teammates with a focus on problem resolution. Each individual within the group has an opportunity to suggest resolution strategies that can be vetted by the team.

Building computer software in a collaborative manner is not a new concept. These ideas have been used for decades to build better products that meet the end business user’s requirements. Effective collaboration requires the merging of the business and technical teams across a company. These team members work together to resolve problems and deliver a software project for an organization.