Work structures and shifts: an empirical analysis of software specification teamwork

The study and support of teamwork in upstream software development activities (e.g., specification, design) have been approached from a variety of perspectives. Those which address aspects of the division of labor typically focus on authority or communication structures. In this paper, we examine how teams of engineers develop software specifications, from a perspective emphasizing the division of labor in terms of the work structures themselves. We present a new typology of work structures and report on an empirical investigation of these work structures. We examine the teamwork process followed by each of five comparable teams of specification developers. The teams worked over a ten-day period with state-of-the- art specification resources to deliver functional specification documents meeting prescribed quality standards. Our data and analysis show the recurrence of various kinds of shifts in the teams' work structures. We discuss the resulting patterns of work structures and shifts and their implications. In particular, separative work structures were associated with improved specification teamwork efficiency, whereas integrative work structures were associated with improved specification product quality.

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