Requirements for a virtual collocation environment

Abstract

We analyze how physically collocated teams work together now and what services they require to work together across distances, focusing on real time interactions because those interactions justify collocating teams today. We explain how Integrated Product Teams 0PT.s) are organized in system development programs and how their physical collocation facilitates communication, collaboration, and coordination within the team. Interactions witbin IPTs take two forms: scheduled meetings and opportunistic interactions. Scenarios of scheduled IPT meetings help motivate and identify requirements for supporting distributed meetings. Opportunistic interactions are far more common than scheduled meetings, and more difficult to observe and analyze because they are not scheduled or predictable.