Spreadsheets as collaborative technologies in global requirements change management

Globally distributed stakeholders employ various collaborative technologies to manage requirements. While these technologies facilitate requirements collaboration, their perceived purpose, use and structure co-evolve over time. In this paper we report the results of a study in two global software development settings involving client-vendor relationships. In both cases we noted that the vendor and client sites appropriated spreadsheet technology in quite specific ways, for use locally and for bridging across sites. Yet these spreadsheet files were embedded within different collaborative technologies. Through close study we note how team members practices co-evolved with the spreadsheet artefacts involved in the process of managing requirements change. We note how through a single spreadsheet cell, we may see a world as in William Blake's "grain of sand". Through the evolution of a spreadsheet's structure or content we expose how seemingly incremental local changes have far wider implications for global requirements change management.