REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION MODEL IN A SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS INSIDE A PHYSICALLY DISTRIBUTED ENVIRONMENTi Minimizing the communication difficulties and incorporating a planning view to the software development life cylce

The purpose of this paper is to propose a software development model, centered in the requirements specification phase, adapted to the research and development characteristics in the e-business area, where the users and development teams are found in a physically distributed environment (United States and Brazil). The results of a case study are also presented here, in development of a specific software for DELL Computers e-business website. This research is classified as an explanatory study, where the main research method was the case study. As result, the proposed model is presented and described, adding a planning phase to the software development process, based on the concept proposed by the Unified Process and the UML language. Some aspects are also discussed, such as the partnership of a great worldwide company in computing (DELL Computers) and a great Brazilian university (PUCRS), in the research and development conjoined project context.