Comparison Framework for Team-Based Communication Channels

Communication via instant messaging (e.g., Slack) supports collaboration between software developers. It enables discussions and knowledge sharing within small groups, companies and physically distributed teams. In this paper, we introduce a comparison framework aiming at the evaluation of team-based communication channels for (a) practitioners interested in using or improving communication channels as part of their project and team communication, and (b) researchers interested in utilising team communication channels to answer research questions (e.g., to analyse developer communication in mining studies). The framework includes criteria derived from other empirical works on developer communication and experience reports related to development tools. We illustrate the framework by analysing four communication tools (Microsoft Teams, Slack, Gitter, Spectrum).