A Template To Assess User Centredness InSoftware Quality Management
Anne Marie Smith, Lynne Dunckley · WIT transactions on information and communication technologies · 1970
User-centredness is now generally perceived as an important ingredient in the successful management of software projects. There is, however, some lack of clarity within the software development community as to what specifically constitutes a user-centred design process and how organisations can seek to increase their user-centredness. The authors have previously identified three categories of structures, processes and scope through which user-centredness can be evaluated. These categories have previously been used to analyse and present the results of a major study of user organisations. From the work of this study the authors have developed a template to assess user centredness in software quality management. In this paper the authors describes the design and use of such a template. When applied by software development managers, the template provides a mechanism for objective assessment of usercentredness. The authors presents the results of trialling the template in a number of user organisations. In conclusion it is suggested that the template offers software development managers a rapid way to assess their design methods and identify weaknesses. By adopting strategies for remedial action overall user-centredness and thereby software quality can be enhanced.