Software engineering: the art of the user interview

ABSTRACT

The specification of a system is a major problem. One useful technique is to involve users in the design process. This requires considerable skill on the part of the software professionals. As one component of our software engineering course we are trying to develop this skill. We ask our students to design a system, and as a part of developing the system specification we give them an opportunity to interview a “user.” Since real users are often not very helpful, we deliberately arrange that our “users” will be obtuse regarding technical details of the system. We then conduct follow-up classroom discussion which, we hope, will leave the students with a much more realistic idea of what to expect from a user. A skillful interviewer can often gain valuable insights from users into which aspects of the system are most important to the specifications.

REFERENCES

• 1: Anderson, Robort B.,proving Programs correct, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1979
• 2: Joseph M. Fox, Software and Its Development, Prentice Hall PTR, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1982
• 3: Henry C. Lucas, Jr., The analysis, design, and implementation of information systems (3rd ed.), McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, NY, 1985
• 4: James Martin, System design from provably correct constructs, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1985
• 5: R S Pressman, Software engineering: a practitioner's approach (2nd ed.), McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, NY, 1986
• 6: Charles D. Sigwart , Gretchen L. Van Meer, Evaluation of group projects in a software engineering course, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.17 n.2, p.32-35, June 1985 [doi>10.1145/382204.382530]

INDEX TERMS

Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Curriculum

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors