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Analysis for Product Design
Identifying Needs and Desires


Prof. David Bernstein
James Madison University

Computer Science Department
bernstdh@jmu.edu

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The Phases of the Process
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  • Categorizing the Product:
    • Categorize along different dimensions
  • Identifying Needs and Desires:
    • Identify/categorize stakeholders
    • Elicit their needs
  • Documenting the Design:
    • Create the documents
    • Check the documents
Categorizing Products based on Market Size
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  • Consumer:
    • A large number of customers
  • Niche:
    • More than one customer but not "mass market"
  • Custom:
    • One customer
Categorizing Products based on Features
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  • New:
    • Different from anything else
  • Derivative:
    • Similar to one or more existing products
  • Maintenance/Update:
    • New version of an existing product
Categorizing Products based on Technological Novelty
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  • Visionary:
    • New technology must be developed
  • Leading Edge:
    • Proven technology that isn't in widespread use
  • Established:
    • Widely used in other products
The Challenges of Identifying Needs
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  • The Product Type Matters:
    • Consumer vs. custom
    • New product vs. maintenance release
    • Visionary vs. established
  • Problems Communicating:
    • The context is often complicated
    • Ambiguities of natural language
    • Omitting the "obvious"
  • Different Stakeholders:
    • People/devices who/that use the product to enter/input information
    • People/devices who/that use the output of the product
    • People who administer the product
    • People who support the product
    • Others
An Important Heuristic
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  • Learn about the problem domain first
    • You can't ask intelligent questions otherwise
  • Remember that needs come from goals
    • Try and identify the underlying goals of the stakeholders if you can
  • Use well-established elicitation techniques
    • Don't always "shoot from the hip"
Elicitation Techniques
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  • Interviews
  • Observations
  • Focus Groups
  • Document Studies
  • Competitive Product Studies
  • Prototype Demonstrations (and the resulting feedback)
Product Analysis Documents
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  • Problem Domain Glossary:
    • The terms (and their definitions) that are specific to the problem/product of interest
  • Organization Chart:
    • A hierarchical display of the positions and reporting relationships in an organization
  • Stakeholder Goals List:
    • A catalog of important stakeholder categories and their goals
  • Needs List:
    • A collection of need statements, each of which documents a single product feature, function, or property desired by a stakeholder
    • Each need statement must be identifiable/traceable (e.g., numbered)
    • Each need statement must be associated with one or more specific stakeholders
Product Analysis in Context
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  • In Heavyweight/Non-Incremental Software Processes:
    • Product analysis documents are created, validated, and verified before resolution begins (though there is often some iteration)
  • In Agile/Incremental Processes:
    • Few documents are created
    • Analysis and resolution occur concurrently
Verification and Validation in Heavyweight Processes
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  • Correct:
    • A statement is correct if it is contingent (i.e., can be true or false) and accords with the facts
  • In Scope:
    • Can a need be realized given the project's scope
  • Terminologically Consistent:
    • Each word is used consistently
  • Uniform:
    • Similar needs are expressed in similar ways
  • Complete:
    • Contains all relevant material
There's Always More to Learn
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