🔍 How to Evaluate a Collaboration Tool

The syllabus says "research and evaluate" — this means you need to go beyond just describing a tool. You must make a judgement about how good it is, using evidence and criteria.

📝 Steps for Evaluating a Tool

Describe — What is the tool? What does it do?
Identify criteria — What features matter? (version control, branching, code review, access control, etc.)
Assess against criteria — Does the tool meet each criterion well, partially, or not at all?
Compare — How does it compare to alternatives?
Make a judgement — Who is it best suited for? What are its strengths and limitations?

📖 Example Evaluation: Replit

Below is a model answer showing how to evaluate a tool properly.

Replit is a cloud-based code collaboration tool that lets developers write, run, and share code from a web browser. It is popular with students and beginners because it requires no software installation.

Strengths: Replit excels at real-time collaboration — multiple users can edit the same code simultaneously, similar to Google Docs. It is highly accessible because it runs entirely in the browser, meaning it works on school computers and Chromebooks. It supports many programming languages and has a built-in chat feature for team communication. The free tier makes it accessible for students.

Limitations: Replit has limited version control compared to GitHub — it does not support branching or detailed change history. This makes it unsuitable for large or long-term projects where tracking changes is critical. It also lacks formal code review features like pull requests, meaning there is no structured process for checking code quality before it is accepted.

Judgement: Replit is best suited for beginners, students, and small quick projects where ease of use and real-time collaboration are more important than advanced version control. For professional or large-scale development, tools like GitHub or GitLab would be more appropriate.

🎯 Exam Tip

Notice the structure: describe → assess strengths → assess limitations → make a judgement. This is what "evaluate" means in the syllabus. Simply listing features is only "describing" — you must also say whether those features are good enough and for whom.