End-users Understanding People in the Development Effort

J.E.D.I

1.6 Understanding People in the Development Effort

To help in the fostering of a quality mindset in the development of the software, one should understand the people involved in the software development process, particularly, their interest regarding the system and the software that needs to be developed. In this section, there are two major groups that are involved in the software development effort, specifically, end-users and development team.

1.6.1 End-users

End-users are the people who will be using the end-product. Much of the requirements will be coming from this group. They can be grouped into two according to their involvement within the system organization and development, namely, those who are directly involved and those who are indirectly involved. Those who are directly involved Table 1 shows the categorization of the end-users according to the job functions that they perform within the system. Software Engineering 29 J.E.D.I Operational Job Supervisor Job Executive Job They perform the operational functions of the system. They perform supervisory actions on daily operations of the system. They are mostly measured and motivated by performance against budget. They usually provide the initiative and serve as the funding authority of the systems development project. They are more likely to be concerned with the human interface component of the system: • What type of keyboard will be using? • What kind of on-line display screen will the system have? • Will there be a lot of glare and will the characters be easy to read? They are more likely to be concerned with the operational efficiency of the functions that needs to be performed such as more outputs in less time. They are less likely to be concerned with the day-to- day operations. They are more concerned with strategic issues and long- term profit-and-loss. They have the local view of the system. They also tend to have the same local and physical view of the system similar with the operational users but will have performance concerns. They are most likely interested in the global view of the system. They tend to think of the system in physical terms. They are the users who have more contact with the software engineers. They are generally able to work with abstract models of the system rather than the physical terms. They are more interested in results. Table 1: Job Category General Guidelines with End-Users • The higher the level of the manager, the less he or she is likely to care about computer technology. It would be best to ask him or her over-all results and performance the system can provide. They are good candidates for interview regarding the report layouts and code design. • The goals and priorities of management may be in conflict with those of the supervisory and operational users. This can be seen based on their different levels of concerns. As software engineer, try to discover areas of commonality. More on this on Chapter 3- Requirements Engineering. • Management may not provide resources, funding or time that the users feel is necessary to build an effective system. Resource and financial constraints will occur. It is important to prioritize requirements. More on this on Chapter 3- Requirements Engineering. Software Engineering 30 J.E.D.I Those who are indirectly involved Mostly, these group includes the auditors, standard bearers, and quality assurance group. The general objective of this group is to ensure that the system is developed in accordance with various standard set such as: • Accounting standards developed by the organizations accounting operations or firm. • Standards developed by other departments within the organization or by the customer or user who will inherit the system • Various standards imposed by the government regulatory agencies. Some possible problem that may be encountered with this group. As software engineers, keep an eye on them and address them accordingly. • They dont get involved in the project until the very end, particularly, the quality assurance group. It is important that they be involved in every activity that would require their expertise and opinion. • They provide the necessary notation and format of documentation. They may be needed in the definition of the presentation and documentation of the system. • They are more interested in substance rather than form.

1.6.2 Development Team