Agile requirements work in a digital transformation project: Managing diverse and dispersed user needs

Successful requirements engineering is vital to the success of software projects. Agile software development seeks to limit the risk of misunderstanding requirements by emphasizing evolutionary delivery and more end-user involvement. But what happens when features are not accepted because the customers cannot agree among themselves? In this paper we report on an ongoing study where a software development company is creating a software system from scratch for a complex, diverse, and dispersed customer organization. We describe our ongoing study in which we follow a feature of the software system from idea to implementation. We attempt to explain our observations through three theoretical lenses: User participation and involvement, power relations in complex organizations, and balancing of local and global needs in system development

Power and politics of user involvement in software development

© 2018 Association for Computing Machinery. [CONTEXT] Involving users in software development is a complex and multi-faceted concept. Empirical research that studies power and politics of user involvement in software development is scarce. [OBJECTIVE] In this paper, we present the results from a case study of a software development project, where organizational politics was explored in context of user involvement in software development. [METHOD] We collected data through 30 interviews with 20 participants, attending workshops, observing project meetings, and analysing projects documents. The qualitative data was rigorously and iteratively analyzed. [RESULTS] The results indicate that the politics was a significant factor used to exert power and influence in decision-making processes. Communication channels were exploited for political purposes. These contributed to the users' dissatisfaction with their involvement thus impacting on the project outcome. [CONCLUSION] Having multiple teams of stakeholders with different levels of power in decision-making, the politics is inevitable and inescapable. Without careful attention, the political aspect of user involvement in software development can contribute to unsuccessful project

The Key Determinant Factors of Clinical Information Systems User Satisfaction: Lessons Learnt From an Australian Case Study

Driven by the escalating pressures to enhance its outcomes within its limited resources, the healthcare industry is increasingly investing in various clinical information systems. Although user satisfaction is key to realizing the benefits of these large invests, the determinant factors for user satisfaction with clinical information systems are still not well understood. This study addresses this need by qualitatively investigating the relationships between the overall satisfaction with clinical information systems and five key aspects of clinical information systems, namely key functionalities, efficiency of use, intuitiveness of graphical user interfaces (GUI), communication, collaboration, and information exchange, and interoperability and compatibility issues. The findings resulting from both descriptive and thematic analyses show that clinical information systems are still in their infant stage and that their maturity is highly questionable. Simpler clinical information systems are likely to be more satisfying than more complex systems. System design and training provided are also key factors as the study finds

Towards an analytical framework for value configurations

Based on Thompson’s (1967) three technologies, Stabell and Fjeldstad (1998) proposed three value configurations; the value shop, the value chain and the value network. However, the threefold variety of technologies in Thompson has been recognized as being in contrast with Thompson’s ambition to produce two-by-two classification schemes. Also, Johansson and Jonsson (2012) proposed a new value configuration: the package configuration after studies of industrial firms’ value configurations. Thus, the question arises: how can these value configurations be classified and along what dimensions, in order to facilitate analysis of hybrid forms and changes between value configurations? This paper expands on the current literature on value configurations to provide a deeper understanding of how they can be classified, particularly in the context of organizations that utilize hybrid forms of value configurations and transition between them. A two-by-two matrix is proposed where the value configurations are positioned according to the application of capabilities and the level of co-creation of customers

User Perceived Quality Model for Web-Based System Assessment

The critical issue in software quality is to maintain the relevance of the software to the dynamics requirements and expectations. For the last forty years, many software quality models have been developed that focused on the technical and behavioural aspect of the software and little attention towards user perspective of quality. Our previous works in certification exercises have revealed the needs and rational for software certification from user approach. This is aligned with several new developments such as social networking software, various software on the market and development approach as agile methods that leads to user dominance and control over the software. Thus, users are more criticised and demanded in the quality aspects of the software service that accessible to wide range of people from various categories of users. The users of the web-based systems can be defined in several categories with different interests and perspectives but this research only focuses on web users in general. The new structure of quality model is defined. The enhanced quality model and system are valuable to overcome the limitations of previous models and further improve the application in assessment process and software certification

Designing an End User Participation and Involvement Assistant for Continuous IS Development

The nature of information system provision has changed as the business models of software firms are continually changing towards software-as-a service and platform-as-a-service solutions. Involving end users in a continuous development of such information systems promises to increase the overall system’s success. The conceptualization and actual realization of the user involvement concept is subject of ongoing research. Based on a systematic literature review, we identified three implications of this research that are relevant for the development of an information technology based assistant for user participation and involvement. In this paper, we introduce our Design Science Research project on the theory grounded design of a user participation and involvement assistant. We aim to enable end users to provide meaningful feedback to the developers during their actual system use. Moreover, the assistant will enable developers to effectively analyze the vast amount of complex end user feedback

User Involvement and Usability Evaluation in Ethiopian Software Organizations

Usability is central especially in contexts with highly heterogeneous user groups as it is the case in developing countries. User involvement and participation has positive impacts towards developing usable software and system success and it is one of the core principles in user centered design (UCD). But how does the industry in developing countries work with UCD and usability evaluation? The article reports from a survey on usability evaluation and UCD practices in Ethiopian software organizations. It aims at exploring the practice of usability evaluation, user involvement and participation in the software organizations in Ethiopia. Some part of the survey question is adapted from a previously conducted survey in Italy and Denmark and further expanded with a set of questions referring to user involvement and participation. The survey was triangulated with interviews with a subset of the respondents. The results show that the percentage of organizations performing some form of usability evaluation is low in Ethiopia. The challenges of usability evaluation observed in the study was analyzed with respect to the challenges of 'digital divide' against the publicly available methods and practices and among developed and developing nations using real access/ real impact criteria. The result shows that there are some unique challenges of usability not discussed in the literature reviewed in any detail such as less IT skills, lack of trained professionals, and lack of awareness. The result for user involvement shows also some unique challenges: lack of user motivation, acceptance of change and cultural influence. However, more than 80% of the surveyed organizations claim involving users in some kind in product development. The implications of these findings with respect to the need to contextualize UCD and usability methods are discussed