Attaining effective communication within and across organizational units is among the most critical challenges for success in software development organizations. This paper presents a novel model, supporting analysis of problems in inter-departmental communication events. The model was developed and designed based on industrial needs emphasizing flexibility, applicability and scalability. The model covers central communication aspects in order to provide a useful approximation of communication problems rather than in-depth modeling on message-by message basis. Other event-specific information, such as costs, can then be attached to enrich analysis and understanding. To exemplify and evaluate the model and collect feedback from industry, it was applied to 16 events at a Swedish automotive manufacturer where communication between two departments had broken down during development of software-intensive systems. The evaluation showed that the model helped structure and conduct systematic data collection and analysis of dysfunctional communication patterns. We found that insufficient understanding of the matters being communicated was prevalent, but also more specifically, requirements were insufficiently balanced, detailed and specified over the full system development cycle. Besides, the long-term cost for the company was analyzed in depth for each event, yielding a total estimated cost for the analyzed communication events of 11.2MUS$.

中文翻译：

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软件开发中的通信问题——模型及其工业应用

在组织单元内和跨组织单元实现有效的沟通是软件开发组织成功的最关键挑战之一。本文提出了一种新颖的模型，支持对跨部门沟通事件中的问题进行分析。该模型是根据工业需求开发和设计的，强调灵活性、适用性和可扩展性。该模型涵盖了中央通信方面，以便提供对通信问题的有用近似，而不是在逐个消息的基础上进行深入建模。然后可以附加其他特定于事件的信息，例如成本，以丰富分析和理解。示范和评估模型并收集行业反馈，它被应用于一家瑞典汽车制造商的 16 场活动，其中两个部门之间的通信在软件密集型系统的开发过程中出现故障。评估表明，该模型有助于构建和进行系统的数据收集和功能失调的沟通模式分析。我们发现，对所沟通事项的理解不足很普遍，但更具体地说，需求在整个系统开发周期中没有得到充分平衡、详细和指定。此外，对每个事件的公司长期成本进行了深入分析，得出分析的通信事件的总估计成本为 11.2MUS$。评估表明，该模型有助于构建和进行系统的数据收集和功能失调的沟通模式分析。我们发现，对所沟通事项的理解不足很普遍，但更具体地说，需求在整个系统开发周期中没有得到充分平衡、详细和指定。此外，对每个事件的公司长期成本进行了深入分析，得出分析的通信事件的总估计成本为 11.2MUS$。评估表明，该模型有助于构建和进行系统的数据收集和功能失调的沟通模式分析。我们发现，对所沟通事项的理解不足很普遍，但更具体地说，需求在整个系统开发周期中没有得到充分平衡、详细和指定。此外，对每个事件的公司长期成本进行了深入分析，得出分析的通信事件的总估计成本为 11.2MUS$。