User involvement in system design: An empirical test of alternative approaches

User involvement in the development of information systems is often assumed to be key to successful implementation. However, few empirical studies have clearly demonstrated a relationship between user involvement and two key indicators of system success: system usage and user information satisfaction. The authors test the general hypothesis that user involvement is a more complex concept than previous research would indicate; there are different types of involvement and different stages in the system development life cycle in which users may become involved. In a study of 83 users in 23 companies, they found that only the activity of user sign-offs on project phases had a significant correlation with both user information satisfaction and satisfaction with the information systems group. The authors conclude that there is a complex relationship between the type and degree of user involvement and other organizational and individual factors; this relationship affects both user satisfaction with and usage of the resulting systems. Some suggestions for further research taking this complexity into account are given.     

The user–developer communication process: a critical case study

Abstract. Although user participation in systems development is widely believed to have positive impacts on user acceptance, it does not guarantee success and there is still much that we do not know about how and why user participation sometimes delivers positive benefits, but not always. Much of the prior research on user participation assumes that user–developer communication will ensure that the resulting system will be designed to meet users' needs and will be accepted by them. The nature and quality of the communication between users and developers, however, remains an understudied aspect of user participation. In this paper, we focus on the user–developer communication process. We propose a process model that delineates four stages of communication between users and software developers, and we argue that these stages must occur for user participation to lead to effective outcomes. To illustrate our model, we apply it to analyse a 'critical case study' of a software project that failed despite high levels of user involvement. We show that when 'communication lapses' occurred in several of the user–developer communication stages, developers failed to be informed regarding the underlying reasons that users avoided the system. Based on the insights from this case study, we advise researchers and practitioners how to leverage the potential benefits of user participation, rather than take them for granted.     

The effect of user engagement on system success: A meta-analytical integration of research findings

The effect of user involvement on system success is an important topic yet empirical results have been controversial. Many methodological and theoretical differences among prior studies have been suggested as possible causes for inconsistent findings. This research is an attempt to resolve inconsistent data despite differences that may exist in prior studies. Data from 25 studies were meta-analyzed to test the separate effects of user participation and user involvement on six system success variables. Results showed that user participation had a moderate positive correlation with four success measures: system quality, use, user satisfaction, and organizational impact. The correlation between user participation and individual impact was minimum. User involvement generally had a larger correlation with system success than did user participation. Overall, these findings indicate that both user involvement and user participation are beneficial, but the magnitude of these benefits much depends on how involvement and its effect are defined.     

Understanding the Influence of User Participation and Involvement on System Success – a Systematic Mapping Study

User participation and involvement in software development are considered to be essential for a successful software system. Three research areas, human aspects of software engineering, requirements engineering, and information systems, study these topics from various perspectives. We think it is important to analyze user participation and involvement in software engineering comprehensively to encourage further research in this area. We investigate the evidence on effects of user participation and involvement on system success and we explore which methods are available in literature. A systematic mapping study was conducted. The systematic search yielded 3,698 hits, from which we identified 289 unique papers. These papers were reviewed by the first author based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The second author validated the selection of papers by reviewing the reasons for exclusion and inclusion and the corresponding papers on a sample base. 58 of the 289 papers were selected (22 statistical survey and meta-study papers and 36 methods papers). Based on the empirical evidence of the surveys and meta-studies, we developed a meta-analysis of structural equation models. This overview demonstrates that most papers showed positive correlations between aspects of development processes (including user participation) and human aspects (including user involvement) and system success. The analysis of the proposed solutions from the method papers revealed a wide variety of user participation and involvement practices for most activities within software development.     

The relationship between user participation and system success: a simultaneous contingency approach

The relationship between user participation and information system (IS) success has drawn attention from researchers for some time. It is assumed that strong participation of future users in the design of IS would lead to successful outcomes in terms of more IS usage, greater user acceptance, and increased user satisfaction. However, in spite of this, much of the empirical research so far has been unable to demonstrate its benefits. This paper examines the participation–success relationship in a broader context, where the effects of user participation and two other factors, user attitudes and user involvement, on system success occur simultaneously. Other contingency variables considered here are: system impact, system complexity, and development methodology. The theoretical framework and the associated hypotheses are empirically tested by a survey of 32 organizations. Empirical results corroborate the positive link between user participation and user satisfaction and provide evidence on the interplay between user attitudes and user involvement.     

An empirical study on the implementation and evaluation of a goal-driven software development risk management model

ContextBuilding a quality software product in the shortest possible time to satisfy the global market demand gives an enterprise a competitive advantage. However, uncertainties and risks exist at every stage of a software development project. These can have an extremely high influence on the success of the final software product. Early risk management practice is effective to manage such risks and contributes effectively towards the project success.ObjectiveDespite risk management approaches, a detailed guideline that explains where to integrate risk management activities into the project is still missing. Little effort has been directed towards the evaluation of the overall impact of a risk management method. We present a Goal-driven Software Development Risk Management Model (GSRM) and its explicit integration into the requirements engineering phase and an empirical investigation result of applying GSRM into a project.MethodWe combine the case study method with action research so that the results from the case study directly contribute to manage the studied project risks and to identify ways to improve the proposed methodology. The data is collected from multiple sources and analysed both in a qualitative and quantitative way.ResultsWhen risk factors are beyond the control of the project manager and project environment, it is difficult to control these risks. The project scope affects all the dimensions of risk. GSRM is a reasonable risk management method that can be employed in an industrial context. The study results have been compared against other study results in order to generalise findings and identify contextual factors.ConclusionA formal early stage risk management practice provides early warning related to the problems that exists in a project, and it contributes to the overall project success. It is not necessary to always consider budget and schedule constraints as top priority. There exist issues such as requirements, change management, and user satisfaction which can influence these constraints.     

Effective user involvement in product development by improving the analysis of user needs

User involvement has been shown to be beneficial in the development of useful and usable systems. The trend of software development becoming a product-oriented activity creates challenges to user involvement. Field studies appear a promising approach, but the analysis of the gathered user needs has been shown to be demanding. This study presents, on the basis of seven case studies, an early user-involvement process showing how user needs can be analysed and how the input to product development can be identified. In addition, the process is evaluated in two industrial cases with interviews and a questionnaire. The results show that the process supports effective early user involvement; the resulted requirements were evaluated as being more successful and their quality as better than average in a company. However, the case studies show that user involvement not only provides useful information about users' needs but also increases the understanding of users' values.     

Weil Aufwand wichtig ist!

Project effort is critical for the success of software development projects. It has a major impact on whether constraints in time and budget can be complied with. But although requirements affect project effort, requirements engineering (RE) methods are not capable of assessing project effort. In this paper, we present our mapping model for assessing project effort (MMAPE). MMAPE incorporates into RE the assessment of project effort resulting from requirements for software development projects. It maps semantics of the RE method KAOS onto structures that are counted in function point analyses. We applied MMAPE in a case study on a software development project within a large financial institution. The validity of MMAPE is supported, since we found throughout consistent statements between information provided by MMAPE and data gathered from the case.     

Who are the users? Who are the developers? Webs of users and developers in the development process of a technical standard

The paper presents an empirical study of user involvement in developing a technical standard for a scientific community's information system project. The case illustrates how multiple perspectives are involved when considering the user role in practice. The case presents a situation where both developers and users were pre‐defined in the design and development phases of the standard as homogeneous groups of actors. Groups of actors changed to become more heterogeneous and ‘fluid’ in the deployment and implementation phases, thus forming ‘webs of developers’ and ‘webs of users’. Detailed analysis of the process in its entirety shows the blurredness of boundaries between ‘developer’ and ‘user’ categories and roles, and reveals challenges at social and organizational levels. Three models pertaining to the system development process are presented in order to illuminate differing perspectives on the user and on the development process itself. The paper draws theoretically from information systems, social informatics, and science and technology studies. The research contributes to a deeper, interdisciplinary understanding of ‘the’ user, of multiple roles in systems development, and of dynamic sets of user–developer relations.     

The effects of user involvement: some personality determinants

A number of studies have been conducted with the purpose of confirming or disconfirming the general argument that user involvement in information system development is beneficial. Few studies have been undertaken, however, to support the view that the benefits of user involvement are affected by conditions surrounding systems development. This paper presents the results of a field study investigating the moderating influence of four user personality characteristics on the effects of user involvement on user information satisfaction. The relationship between user involvement and user information satisfaction was the most positive for users who were tolerant of ambiguity, and for users with a high need for achievement. An unexpected finding was that the relationship between user involvement and user information satisfaction was more positive for users with external-control beliefs than for users with internal-control beliefs. Degree of users' dogmatism had no impact on the outcome of user involvement.     

Multigroup decision-support systems in CSCW

Research in computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) has concentrated on developing techniques and support systems for groups of tightly coupled individuals focused on activities such as group writing and design development. A natural extension involves group decision-support systems (GDSS) that can assist multiple groups working in different places at different times. Our work extends the GDSS approach to a multigroup decision-support system (MGDSS) and uses the advanced integrated requirements engineering system (AIRES) for support. Two case studies, including data from user questionnaires, indicate a high level of user satisfaction with the support the system provides. The MGDSS process and AIRES software support idea elicitation to solve complex problems. The system automatically organizes and assesses these ideas to help large groups build consensus     

Modeling use of enterprise resource planning systems: a path analytic study

In this research, we evaluated user participation and involvement in the context of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Since ERP systems are enterprise-wide in scope, these systems have a high level of complexity, and require a different implementation methodology. While most studies analyze implementation at an organization or industry level, there is a dearth in research in ERP system adoption at the individual or user level. In our study, we examine ERP system acceptance at the individual level. In this research, we expected to find differences in the nature of user participation and involvement in ERP compared to other information systems. Using Barki and Hartwick's extension of the theory of reasoned action, a revised model was developed and tested empirically. While Barki and Hartwick's model explains user behavior vis-à-vis user participation and involvement, a more parsimonious model demonstrates that usage dynamics in ERP implementation are different. We complemented our statistical analysis by three case studies. Based on our results we believe that, given the nature of ERP and its implementation, traditionally formalized links between influencers of users' attitude and involvement may need to be revised. We have discussed why we need to seek alternate forms of influencers. In doing so, we suggest that investments be made in preparatory work practices and employee development prior to ERP decisions. Such investments are complementary to information technology and are widespread throughout the firm. We believe that such investments will play a significant role in influencing the attitude of users toward any system and also their involvement.     

LinguaNet: Embedded MT in a Cross-Border Messaging System for European Law Enforcement

Globalisation of crime poses a serious threat to the international community and is a matter of growing concern to law enforcement agencies all over the world. In the combat against international and organized crime, the European Union (EU) has supported a number of research and development projects within the domain of law enforcement focusing on cross-border communication, information extraction and data analysis in a multilingual context as well as terminology and knowledge management. LinguaNet is a case in point and the only project involving a multilingual messaging system. A high level of user involvement was a prominent feature of the project and the resulting software – the LinguaNet system – has gained widespread recognition and usage. The paper gives an overview of the LinguaNet approach as a whole emphasising the temporary experimental embedding of fully automatic MT in a multilingual messaging system. The system is intended for use by professionals with no background in linguistics but in great need of fast and robust communication. One of the conclusions drawn from this experiment is that authoring errors proved to be much more counter-productive than insufficiencies of MT. Another conclusion is that it is preferable to leave it to the recipient of a message to request a machine translation rather than providing it automatically up front. In more general terms, the police liked the approach and reported the need for more message type templates and MT facilities. Finally, the project lead to the formation of a European LinguaNet user group network. This revised version was published online in November 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Empirically Testing User Characteristics and Fitness Factors in Enterprise Resource Planning Success

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for supporting inter- and intracompany business processes are reaching maturity in many organizations. However, ERP systems are complex and expensive, and the decision to install an ERP system necessitates a choice of mechanisms for determining whether the ERP is needed and, once implemented, whether it is successful. User satisfaction is one evaluation mechanism for gauging system success. In this study, the efficacy of user characteristics and fitness factors as determinants of ERP success was empirically evaluated. The findings indicate that the fitness factors (i.e., compatibility and task relevance) have significant positive influences on ERP satisfaction. As for user characteristics, higher educated users have greater user satisfaction and managers have greater satisfaction than nonmanagement users. However, the study finds that user age, information experience, and package localization have no significant effect on ERP user satisfaction. The study offers insights that adopters and consultants can focus on to improve the level of ERP user satisfaction.     

What do software practitioners really think about project success: A cross-cultural comparison

Due to the increasing globalization of software development we are interested to discover if there exist significant cultural differences in practitioners’ definition of a successful software project. This study presents the results of a survey in which Chilean software practitioners’ perceptions of project success are compared with previous research with US practitioners. Responses from both groups of practitioners indicate that there is a relationship between team-work and success; our results also indicate that there are similar perceptions related to the importance of job satisfaction and project success. However, Chilean responses suggest that if a practitioner is allowed too much freedom within the work environment, job stress results; this in turn is reflected in increasing demands for both job satisfaction and good environmental conditions. This may indicate the potential for the attribution of failure to conditions outside the team, thus preventing a search for problematic team issues and technical problems. In contrast, the data suggests peer control inside the US teams indicating a less stressful environment.     

软件需求分析中的用例建模研究与应用

需求是软件项目的基础,如何把握用户需求,是项目成功与否的关键.一个灵活的软件需求分析技术,可以帮助开发人员准确获取用户需求.用例建模是面向对象软件开发技术的重要组成内容,它能够完整地捕捉系统的功能性需求,体现用户和系统之间的交互关系.通过一个实例分析,简要介绍如何使用用例建模技术,完成软件需求分析.     

The effects of change control and management review on software flexibility and project performance

Software flexibility and project efficiency are deemed to be desirable but conflicting goals during software development. We considered the link between project performance, software flexibility, and management interventions. Specially, we examined software flexibility as a mediator between two recommended management control mechanisms (management review and change control) and project performance. The model was empirically evaluated using data collected from 212 project managers in the Project Management Institute. Our results confirmed that the level of control activities during the system development process was a significant facilitator of software flexibility, which, in turn, enhanced project success. A mediator role of software flexibility implied that higher levels of management controls could achieve higher levels of software flexibility and that this was beneficial not only to the maintainability of complex applications but also to project performance.     

面向服务的过程引擎模型设计

随着大规模软件的出现,软件质量成为软件行业倍受关注的重点问题之一。在基于一种粗粒度松耦合的面向服务体系结构,构建了一个主动过程引擎系统模型。该模型既可以完成软件开发过程的定义、解析和组装,也提供软件过程的主动执行和行为监控,同时也支持软件过程的演化,从项目的整体过程保证软件开发任务的顺利完成和软件产品质量。     

User involvement: a review of the benefits and challenges

User involvement is a widely accepted principle in development of usable systems. However, it is a vague concept covering many approaches. This study first clarifies the nature of user involvement and its expected benefits, and secondly reviews three streams of research, to evaluate the benefits and problems of varied user involvement approaches in practice. The particular focus of this study is on the early activities in the development process. An analysis of the literature suggests that user involvement has generally positive effects, especially on user satisfaction, and some evidence exists to suggest that taking users as a primary information source is an effective means of requirements capture. However, the role of users must be carefully considered and more cost-efficient practices are needed for gathering users' implicit needs and requirements in real product development contexts.     

Windows XP极限开发的应用

在软件开发过程中,需求分析是软件开发过程中重要的环节,甚至影响到软件最终的成功与否。然而,在信息万变的时代,客户的需求信息也在时刻发生着改变。把握住客户的需求信息就是把握住了软件开发成功与否的关键一步。本文以某个管理信息系统项目的开发做为案例,论论了Windows XP极限开发过程的应用,以及为什么要选用Windows XP极限开发模型,Windows XP极限开发模型的特点。