Negotiations continue to play an important part of our lives and in particular influences can be seen in the growth in electronic
commerce through various auction and online stores. Estimates of up to 7bn were predicted for Christmas 2006, a rise of about
35%-40% on the previous year [1]. This growth can only enhance the demand for electronic negotiation systems or at least highlight
the lack of commercial e-negotiation systems. Such systems, though available in mostly academic circles will need to be enhanced
before they can replace traditional face-to-face negotiations. As e-commerce continues to grow, we anticipate a faster uptake
of negotiation systems if their design can mimic traditional systems. Our work proposes to draw the key attributes that need
to be present for a successful negotiation system by examining the current state of the art in electronic negotiation frameworks.
The rest of this paper is structured as follows: Section 2 elaborates on the need for electronic negotiation systems, with
Section 3 examining the current literature in negotiation frameworks, whilst Section 4 presents the attributes which we found
required in negotiation frameworks. Conclusions are drawn in Section 5.