Research problem: Collaborative writing has dramatically changed with the use of cloud-based tools, such as Google Docs. System quality-both functional (i.e., what services the system provides) and nonfunctional quality (i.e., how well the system provides the services)-influences user satisfaction with these tools. Research question: Do functional and nonfunctional quality influence user satisfaction in cloud-based systems that support collaborative writing? Literature review: The intersection of literature from collaborative writing and system quality presents the theoretical foundation for this study. The literature on collaborative writing suggests that technology facilitates and constrains collaborative writing, while the literature on cloud computing highlights the challenges in ensuring various aspects of quality. Furthermore, literature on system quality emphasizes the importance of the different facets of quality (i.e., functional and nonfunctional) and their impacts on user satisfaction. Methodology: We conducted a survey of 150 undergraduate students enrolled in an information systems course at a large urban university. Results: The results show that functional and nonfunctional quality play a critical role in shaping user satisfaction with cloud computing and that nonfunctional quality has a stronger impact than functional quality. Implications: To ensure satisfaction with cloud computing, organizations need to provide adequate development and maintenance resources to ensure both types of quality, and they need to recognize that nonfunctional quality plays a key role in shaping user satisfaction with cloud computing.

Traceability - the ability of developers to describe and follow the life of an artifact throughout the software development life cycle - is an important process that facilitates acquisition and use of process knowledge. While there has been extensive research focusing on the development of traceability solutions, there is a paucity of research that characterizes the tasks that need to be performed in implementing and using traceability. This research addresses this gap by conceptualizing traceability practice in software development as comprising information processing and communication among developers involved in the process. Accordingly, we present the results of two complementary studies focusing on these two aspects of traceability. Based on Study 1, we develop a process model for information processing in traceability. Through Study 2, we identify important contingency factors that impact the mode of communication among developers and customers. We argue that choice of communication media should be dictated by matching particular media characteristics such as synchronicity, reprocessability, and channel capacity to the situation at hand rather than by using aggregated measures such as media richness or social presence. We integrate the findings from our two studies into a process model that prescribes guidelines for traceability practice in software development. Our prescriptions also help traceability tool developers in delivering traceability support that facilitates appropriate information processing and communication capabilities, taking various project characteristics into consideration.