Software Design
SOFTWARE DESIGN 1
SoftwareDesign
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What are potential users
Theseare a group of people who are will and in a position to use a givensoftware
What are important factors that must be considered for different users
Learnability.
Thisis the ability of the software to enable the user to quickly learnhow to use the system.
Efficiency
Thisis the ability of the software to enable the user who has alreadylearned how to utilize the system perform several functions formaximum output.
Memorability
Entailsthe capability of the system to allow the user to continue using thesystem after the break without having to relearn everything.
Lowrate error
Thisrefers to the ability of the system to ensure that the errors made bythe user are few and rectifiable and not catastrophic.
Satisfaction
Thisrefers to a system that the use can enjoy using.
The benefits of paying more attention to the user’s unique requirement
Thebenefits of paying more attention to the user’s unique requirementenable the system to be able to meet its intended objectives, bepractically possible to implement, have valid functions, lackambiguities and be able to be used by all the targeted group of users(Li & Jin, 2013).
What are the possible consequences if software designers do not meet the special or unique requirements of users with different backgrounds?
Theconsequences as a result of not fulfilling the unique requirements ofthe user include the implacability of the software duringimplementation and lack of validity of the software as per the domainand its functionality. According to Pilone & Miles (2008), othercases include ambiguities in the software and incomplete structureunable to fully satisfy the user needs. Li & Jin (2013) add thatwhen the special and unique requirements of the user are not met, itis high likely that the software functionality cannot perform in aconvenient way.
How could software designers know about different users and their unique requirements?
Inorder for the software designers to know about the different users’unique requirement, the designers can carry out interviews. Accordingto Maiden (2008), using the interview approach has proven to be thestrongest medium through which information can be collected. Examplesof interviews that can be carried out include the structured or theclosed interviews, non-structured or open interviews, oralinterviews, written interviews, one to one interviews and groupinterviews. In addition, the designers can carry out a survey amongthe different target groups and find out from them about theirexpectations and requirements from the system to be developed. Also,the designers can administer a questionnaire to the desired groups(Pilone & Miles, 2008).
Li& Jin (2013) explains that the questionnaire come with apre-defined set of objective questions and they are handed to thetarget groups to fill in then collected and compiled. However, whenusing the questionnaire is important that all the details are capturesince if left out, the requirement might not be attended to. In thecase where there exists already a structure of a software thedesigners can perform task analysis and the then using the systemcome up with the requirements of the system to be developed. Otherapproaches include brainstorming and use of prototyping such that theuser has the chance to try and interpret the software during thedesign process. According to Maiden (2008), this will enable theinclusion of all the intended objectives capturing the all therequirements of the system.
The precautions and procedures that you might take to prevent your newly designed software from being a failure due to a lack of consideration of the user’s unique requirements
Inorder to develop software that is not prone to failure as a result oflack of consideration of user requirements, the design can apply thefollowing procedure. First, the designer should conduct a feasibilitystudy. This is carried out by the designer meeting up with the targetgroup, they both come up with the requirements of the software whichaims to satisfy the user. In addition, the designer gets to analyzethe practically of the software during implementation and if thesoftware adheres to the values and objectives of the target group. Atthe end of the feasibility study, the designer will have comment andrecommendations on various areas to captures and requirement to lookinto when designing the software (Maiden, 2008).
Thesecond step is requirement gathering. In this step, the designdedicates his or her time to gather requirements from the user inrelation to the report from the feasibility study. At this stage, theinteraction between the designer and the target group gains him orher the knowledge on the services the software should provide andwhich features are to be included in the software. The next stepinvolves the designer developing a software requirementsspecification list. Maiden (2008) explains that, such a document willbe able to describe the nature at which the software will interactwith the hardware, the speed operation of the software, portabilityof the software across a number of platforms that are available tothe intended group, the speed at which the software can recover inthe case that it crashes while in use, the security, quality, andlimitations of the software. At the final stage, the designer shouldconduct a software requirement validation. This is important sincethere might be scenarios where the user requirements are illegal,completely impracticable or another user might have a wronginterpretation of the requirements.
References
Li,Z., & Jin, Z. (2013). From User Requirements to SoftwareSpecifications: An Approach Based on Problem Transformation. Journalof Software,24(5),971-976. doi:10.3724/sp.j.1001.2013.04398
Maiden,N. (2008). User Requirements and System Requirements. IEEESoftware,25(2),90-91. doi:10.1109/ms.2008.54
Pilone,D., & Miles, R. (2008). Headfirst software development.Sebastopol, CA: O`Reilly.
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