Can Real-Time Machine Translation Overcome Language Barriers in Distributed Requirements Engineering?

In global software projects work takes place over long distances, meaning that communication will often involve distant cultures with different languages and communication styles that, in turn, exacerbate communication problems. However, being aware of cultural distance is not sufficient to overcome many of the barriers that language differences bring in the way of global project success. In this paper, we investigate the adoption of machine translation (MT) services in synchronous text-based chat in order to overcome any language barrier existing among groups of stakeholders who are remotely negotiating software requirements. We report our findings from a simulated study that compares the efficiency and the effectiveness of two MT services, Google Translate and apertium-service, in translating the messages exchanged during four distributed requirements engineering workshops. The results show that (a) Google Translate produces significantly more adequate translations than Apertium from English to Italian; (b) both services can be used in text-based chat without disrupting real-time interaction.