CloudTeams: Bridging the gap between developers and customers during software development processes

The main challenge addressed by the EU-funded project CloudTeams is bridging the communication and collaboration gap between software developers and end users during the whole software development process in order to develop better accepted software. CloudTeams solves the problem by bringing together software developers and end users into one platform, thus providing a seamless environment where interaction with customers will feel natural and will validate the software product. It integrates popular software development tools and services and mashes them up with user participation practices. A sustainable community of end users provides feedback to the development teams at any stage of the software development cycle, from idea generation to beta testing. Through the introduction of novel collaboration and engagement methodologies, CloudTeams facilitates the development process and delivers Software-as-a-Service offerings, which are tested and verified with customers. In this paper we present the CloudTeams approach and the results of the first round of face-to-face interviews with stakeholders of the two user groups on the underlying challenges related to CloudTeams.