Personas & Interviewing

Steve Chenoweth & Chandan RupakhetiRHIT

Chapter 10 - Requirements TextLinks to Personas ref’s on the web

Quiz 3a,Question 10

Dorte is 53 years old and works as a secretary in her husband’s plumbing business in the suburbs of Copenhagen. There are 5-6 assistants and apprentices in the company.

Outline

Mistakes to avoid Before the interview Questions

Most Common Mistake

Lack of preparation Bias

Context Free Questions

Who is the user? Who is the customer? Are their needs different? Where else can a solution to this problem be found?

Quiz 3a, Question 1

Outline

Mistakes to avoid Before the interview Questions

Where Should You Hold an Interview?

Non-threatening environment Customer's turf? Room large enough for group

Free from distractions

Interview Preparation

Do some research Prepare questions Prepare agenda Select roles:

Note taker Questioners

Don’t stop the user when they are trying to answer a question, don’t just follow the script, try and establish a rapport.

Question 2

Interview Phases

1. Establish user profile

2. Assess the problem

3. Understand the environment

4. Recap for understanding

5. Analyst's inputs

6. Assess solution

7. Assess opportunity

8. Assess reliability, performance

9. Other requirements

10. Wrap-up

Outline

Mistakes to avoid Before the interview Questions

See Fig 10-1 in the Requirements book Requirements engineers should all know standard questions

like these, which are good things to ask in many interviews. E.g., “How will the software be distributed?” “Is this the real problem?” “How do you solve it now?”

1. Establish User Profile

Do some research first Determine background of interviewee Find out what will constitute success or failure

Personas – in software engineering

Personas or personae are fictitious characters that are created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic that might use a site or product.

Used in HCI, Will they be useful for us? Why, If yes How?

Right – Examples of personas used by IBM in development of mobile apps by an IT organization. Identifying roles is not good enough. You have to feel like you know a user personally as you develop their software. Ethnographic studies are now common.

2. Assess the Problem

Find out what the problems are How are problems addressed now?

3. Understand the Environment

Find out about the users Find out about the computing environment How much help will users need?

4. Recap for Understanding

Paraphrase what you have heard so far Is anything missing?

5. Analyst's Inputs

Ask about problems that you would expect to be present Rank these problems relative to others

6. Assess Solution

What if ... How important would it be?

7. Assess Opportunity

Determine the market for the solution Determine the value of the solution

8. Assess Reliability and Performance

Determine nonfunctional needs: reliability performance support

9. Other Requirements

Any external requirements? Any other requirements not already mentioned?

10. Wrap-up

What should we have asked? How can we follow up?

Why Not A Questionnaire Instead?...

…After all, they can be done so much more efficiently! But

Difficult to follow-up on responses Relevant questions cannot always be designed in advance.

Advantages of interviews: Personal Contact Interaction/Follow-ups

Questions 3-5