Olle Lindeberg

How use¿oriented development can take place

Abstract Usability is still a problem for software development. As the introduced software changes the use context, use qualities cannot be fully anticipated. Close co-operation between users and developers during development has been proposed as a remedy. Others fear such involvement of users as it might jeopardize planning and control. Based on the observation of an industrial project, we show how user participation and control can be achieved at the same time. The present article discusses the specific measures that allowed for co-operation between users and developers in an industrial context. It indicates measures to improve software development by focusing on use-orientation, i.e. allowing for user–developer co-operation.

End-User Development as Adaptive Maintenance

The change of change applications to suit the needs of users in different places and facilitate development over time has long been a major challenge for software maintenance experts. In this chapter we take up tailoring as a means of making software flexible. Starting with two case studies— one taking up tailoring for different users and the other addressing changes over time—the article discusses problems related to both the use and development of a tailorable application. Developing tailorable software presents new challenges: how do you create a user-friendly tailoring interface? How do you decide what should be tailorable, and how do you create a software architecture that permits this? How do you ensure that the tailorable system gives acceptable performance? Our experience shows that the borders between maintenance and use become blurred since tailorability can replace maintenance by professional software engineers by tailoring by advanced users. Using our experience of the two selected cases, we identify and discuss five important issues to consider when designing and implementing tailorable systems in industrial settings.