Enabling collaboration in distributed requirements management

A collaborative Eclipse-based global requirements tool, Egret has been developed for distributed requirements management. Significant difficulties posed while distributing stakeholders in the global software development projects have necessitated the development of the tool. About 30 practitioners involved in projects were interacted to understand their problems and to propose solutions for them. The tool will enable the geographically distributed practitioners to gain a consistent understanding of requirements or managing requirement change. A preliminary evaluation of the utility of the tool's usability and directions for further enhancement have also been proposed.