Systems development methods and usability in Norway: An industrial perspective

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2007 Springer Berlin HeidelbergThis paper investigates the relationship between traditional systems development methodologies and usability, through a survey of 78 Norwegian IT companies. Building on previous research we proposed two hypotheses; (1) that software companies will generally pay lip service to usability, but do not prioritize it in industrial projects, and (2) that systems development methods and usability are perceived as not being integrated. We find support for both hypotheses. Thus, the use of systems development methods is fairly stable, confirming earlier research. Most companies do not use a formal method, and of those who do, the majority use their own method. Generally, the use of methods is rather pragmatic: Companies that do not use formal methods report that they use elements from such methods. Further, companies that use their own method import elements from standardised methods into their own

Software development methods and usability: Perspectives from a survey in the software industry in Norway

This paper investigates the relationship between traditional software development methodologies and usability. The point of departure is the assumption that two important disciplines in software development, one of software development methods (SDMs) and one of usability work, are not integrated in industrial software projects. Building on previous research we investigate two questions; (1) Will software companies generally acknowledge the importance of usability, but not prioritise it in industrial projects? and (2) To what degree are software development methods and usability perceived by practitioners as being integrated? To this end a survey in the Norwegian IT industry was conducted. From a sample of 259 companies we received responses from 78 companies. In response to our first research question, our findings show that although there is a positive bias towards usability, the importance of usability testing is perceived to be much less than that of usability requirements. Given the strong time and cost pressures associated with the software industry, we believe that these results highlight that there is a gap between intention and reality. Regarding our second research question our survey revealed that companies perceive usability and software development methods to be integrated. This is in contrast to earlier research, which, somewhat pessimistically, has argued for the existence of two different cultures, one of software development and one of usability. The findings give hope for the future, in particular because the general use of system development methods are pragmatic and adaptable

Involve users or fail: An IT project case study from east Africa

Repeated surveys, and most notably those by the Standish Group, suggest that a substantial proportion of Information Technology (IT) projects fail. The literature suggests that this is in part due to a lack of user involvement in the project. The authors’ research describes the case study of a major IT system implementation project in East Africa. The paper reports on the results of both an online questionnaire and interviews with key participants. The authors’ findings suggest that the subsequent failure of this project was in large part attributable to a lack of user involvement in the definition of requirements and implementation of the system. There did not appear to be an organisational culture that recognised the significance of such participation in the project. Although there are issues of definition raised, such as the definition of success and failure, this work supports previous findings that user involvement is a key factor in IT project success and failur

Product Development. User-centred product development and design in an industrial company

User-centred product development is a process the goals of which are to create a product that satisfies the needs of the user. Instead of only concentrating on technical sides of the product, the focus is mostly on fulfilling customer requirements and wishes. The structure of the entire process encourages the activities such as market research, investigation of the nature of the customers, their needs and preferences. The aim of this research was to investigate user-centred product development from both theoretical and practical perspectives and to find out at which rate the practice corresponds to the theory. The product development process of an industrial company was investigated. As an example ABB Finland Oy Motors and Generators was chosen. The company’s product development process was introduced and compared to the theoretical model known as the stage-gate system. Another aim of this research was to investigate open innovation and present its principles in product development. Open source was presented as an example of open innovation. Finally, the goal was to find out the ways to improve the process of user-centred product development in an industrial company. The results of the investigation have shown that the challenges presented by the theory are taking place in the real world. Changing market, environment and customer tastes, existence of multiple choices, growing time pressure and pressure to succeed – all these factors strengthen the importance of customer prioritisation. The study showed that the company can succeed by asking questions, using users as a source of a new product idea, having a user needs-and-wants study and further developing the process structure.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

User research in product development in business to business software as a service

Customers are more empowered to make purchasing decisions than ever before, and customer experience has become a critical decision factor. Business to business (B2B) software as a service (SaaS) companies are changing their strategies and ways of working to become more customer-centric and stay competitive. To understand users, their needs, motivations and the problems that they are facing, companies do user research and involve users in product development. This thesis explores how B2B SaaS organizations utilize user research when developing products. It aims to answer some of the most fundamental questions: which user research methods companies use, how they involve internal stakeholders in user research and how they select the users and motivate them to take part in product development. A qualitative multiple case study approach was used in this thesis to answer the research questions. The literature review aims to provide a broad overview of the topic. Six B2B SaaS companies and two service design companies were interviewed to learn about user research in B2B SaaS field. The results of the thesis show that less customer-centric organizations do ad-hoc user research. More customer-centric companies incorporate user research into the development process. Both approaches are valuable for developing a product that fits customer needs but incorporated user involvement is necessary for achieving a better outcome. Customer-centric organizations include various stakeholders in user research to increase the transparency of findings and create empathy towards users. Furthermore, qualitative user research is essential for customer-centric product development. Regarding the users, while they are motivated to take part in product development, it was discovered that in the B2B field the process of approaching users can be challenging. This thesis compares how different B2B SaaS companies do user research. It reveals the best practices, challenges and opportunities of user involvement. This information can be useful for organizations that aim to become customer-centric. The findings contribute to the literature by providing insights into successful examples and the challenges of user involvement in product development in B2B SaaS organizations

A systematic mapping study of HCI practice research

Human–computer interaction (HCI) practice has emerged as a research domain in the HCI field and is growing. The need to transfer HCI practices to the industry began significantly with the works of Nielsen on usability engineering. To date, methods and techniques for designing, evaluating, and implementing interactive systems for human use have continued to emerge. It is, therefore, justified to conduct a systematic mapping study to determine the landscape of HCI practice research. A Systematic Mapping Study method was used to map 142 studies according to research type, topic, and contribution. These were then analyzed to determine an overview of HCI practice research. The objective was to analyze studies on HCI practice and present prominent issues that characterize the HCI practice research landscape. Second, to identify pressing challenges regarding HCI practices in software/systems development companies. The results show that HCI practice research has steadily increased since 2012. The majority of the studies explored focused on evaluation research that largely contributed to the evaluation methods or processes. Most of the studies were on design tools and techniques, design methods and contexts, design work and organizational culture, and collaboration and team communication. Interviews, case studies, and survey methods have been prominently used as research methods. HCI techniques are mostly used during the initial phase of development and during evaluation. HCI practice challenges in companies are mostly process-related and on performance of usability and user experience activities. The major challenge seems to be to find a way to collect and incorporate user feedback in a timely manner, especially in agile processes. There are areas identified in this study as needing more research

Metodolog?as ?giles y su Impacto en la cultura organizacional: estudio en una empresa de Business Process Outsourcing

Entender como las metodolog?as ?giles impactan en la cultura organizacional y como ?sta a su vez impacta en la implementaci?n de dichas metodolog?as es la finalidad de este trabajo de investigaci?n. Esta tesis fue realizada de forma cualitativa utilizando la metodolog?a de estudio de caso sobre una empresa de subcontrataci?n de procesos de negocio, la cual desarrolla servicios financieros, contables y de recursos humanos. Para el an?lisis se realizaron encuestas semiestructuradas a una muestra homog?nea a quienes se les pidi? que llenaran tambi?n el instrumento "Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI)". Con ello se pudo evaluar en base a los 4 tipos de cultura propuesto en el modelo de valores en competencia de Cameron y Quinn, c?mo se percib?a la cultura antes y despu?s de la implementaci?n de las metodolog?as ?giles y as? poder entender los cambios percibidos en la cultura organizacional de la empresa

Achieving Solution Success: An Investigation of User Participation Approaches

User participation and its relationship to system success have been discussed in the information systems (IS) literature from many theoretical and practical perspectives. In reality, most of this discussion is grounded in empirical research that has yielded mixed results on the importance of user participation and its relationship to system success. The goal of this dissertation is to extend the line of inquiry into user participation during information system development by providing information systems researchers and IS practitioners with both a valid theoretical and practical investigation of a successful IS solution. This investigation organizes the study within a descriptive model that emerges from the different traditions of prior research and uncovers the approach to user participation in a successful IS solution. This user participation approach (UPA) model becomes the structure for the systematic arrangement of user participation approaches into a four-fold typology according to criteria or extrinsic information attributed to them in the research literature. A case study analysis and social network analysis of a successful IS solution will be used to describe, map and measure the relationships, activities, processes, and flows between participants, thus providing a descriptive and visual analysis of the relational structure that emerges. Indeed, these methodological approaches conceptualize the attributes and the relations of user participation during information system development and give insightful perspectives on how a successful IS solution is developed and implemented. The resulting outcome is a description of a successful approach to user participation and some practical recommendations on how to increase the chance of success in a system solution