Customer's King, but User is the Queen

The King may be the holder of all purse-strings and authority on all decisions in any IT project or product. But ultimately everything trickles down to the Queen, or the User, for whom the development happens. Or so it appears.

Let’s stir it about in this chat with Mandar Bhagwat, Co-founder & Director – Products & Services SpadeWorx Software Services, a company that has joined the crusade for user-oriented development with business vigor. In this interview with Pratima H,  Bhagwat touches some issues around this genre of software.

What’s all this brouhaha about User-orientation of late? Is it true that users have been kept on the back-burner so far?

A quick look at some market studies is good enough to check the status-quo. About 80 per cent of total maintenance costs are related to user problems with the systems. These are not related to technical bugs. And then 64 per cent of these are pure usability problems. Typically software apps are defined and driven by business needs. Most of the time development ignores the end-user group as major attention goes to functional needs.

You are talking of UCSE or User Centered Software Engineering here. We have also seen something called ‘usability’ making a lot of buzz in recent times. What’s the difference, if any?

Usability is just one-fourth of a user’s experience. Context to a software, interactivity and user involvement are other major constituents. User is part of the approval process here.

Do users become relevant in the course of development seriously enough?

One-third of projects never get completed while half are only partially completed. Now what contributes to this poor performance? To an extent of 13 per cent it is lack of user involvement, 12 per cent is due to incomplete requirements, 11 per cent because of changing requirements, six percent for unrealistic expectations and five per cent goes for unclear objectives.

But do users themselves; really know what they ‘exactly’ want?

They may know it but are not able to articulate it. Here’s it’s a case of communication gap. So we use probing questions, continuous checks, and iterative processes to figure that one out.

Won’t user-oriented engineering be disruptive to existing systems?

More than disruption, it brings about excitement and connection with the user, which is where we focus and then work backwards. They are often missed in the chase for functionality. ROI is a good as users are satisfied. They don’t have to be convinced or sold anything, they become advocates.

So how does this new class of software engineering propose to change the scenario?

This new style encompasses contextual experience, usability and rich interactivity. This gives visibility in user demands, challenges, patterns and perceptions. The software requirements match user expectations. And it also helps in business process adoption by end users. Additionally, it reduces re-work, total cost of development besides leverage of back-end systems.

And what implications it brings for areas like testing, documentation and QA?

The scope of testing expands with user’s point of view. Our testing team is trained to understand that. Documentation is also part of the process. All these areas have been modified and made interactive to adapt to the new approach.

How much role do user interfaces play then?

The interfaces become more robust, intuitive, expressive and interesting. It also provides immediate and dynamic visual feedback to end user. Also rich interactivity doesn’t necessarily mean a heavy GUI (Graphic User Interface) or a high-fidelity piece. An easy-to-spot emergency button on a car’s wheel is an apt example of usability. Relevance is more important. UCSE is definitely beyond UI.

Does this re-orientation promise enough market as well?

Well, according to Gartner by 2010, over 60 per cent new projects will have Rich Interactive Applications (RIA) technology. RIA adoption is in fact, is helping companies improve productivity to new levels with better tools.

How’s your company working the concept out in action?

SpadeWorx is a pioneer of UCSE methodology to design and develop software solutions that are relevant and contextual to the end users. UCSE has been conceptualized and trademarked by SpadeWorx. We cover application services, product engineering services and application development for smart devices (Mobile applications for Enterprises & Consumers). The company invests approx. 15 per cent of annual revenue into Solution Incubation based emerging trends and technologies.