Team Skill 2: Understanding User and Stakeholder Needs Summary of User Needs as Collected from Interviews A number of homeowners, two distributors , and one electrical contractor were interviewed. From the homeowner 's perspective: -
Flexible and modifiable lighting control for entire house -
"Futureproof" ("As technology changes, I'd like compatibility with new technologies that might emerge.") -
Attractive, unobtrusive , ergonomic -
Fully independent and programmable or (reconfigurable) switches for each room in the house -
Additional security and peace of mind -
Intuitive operation ("I'd like to be able to explain it to my 'technophobic' mother.") -
A reasonable system cost, with low switch costs -
Easy and inexpensive to fix -
Flexible switch configurations (from one to seven " buttons " per switch) -
Out of sight, out of mind -
100 percent reliability -
Vacation security settings -
Ability to create scenes, such as special housewide lighting settings for a party -
No increase in electrical or fire hazards in the home -
Ability, after a power failure, to restore the lights the way they were -
Programmable by the homeowner, using an existing PC -
Dimmers wherever the homeowner wants them -
Programmable by the homeowner, without using a PC -
Programmable by somebody else, so the homeowner doesn't have to do it -
Ability to turn on some lights manually if the system fails -
Interfaces to the home security system -
Interfaces to other home automation (HVAC, audio/video, and so on) From the distributor's perspective: -
A competitive product offering -
Some strong product differentiation -
An easy way to train salespeople -
Ability to demonstrate the system in the shop -
High gross margins The Requirements Workshop While the interviewing process was under way, the development team met with marketing and decided to hold a requirements workshop for the HOLIS project. They invited the attendees listed in Table A-7. Table A-7. Attendees of the HOLIS Requirements Workshop Name | Role | Title | Comments | Rick | Facilitator | Director of marketing | | Alyssa | Participant | HOLIS product manager | Project champion | Marcy | Participant | Software development manager | Development responsibility for HOLIS | Lucy | Participant | | Prospective homeowner | Elmer | Participant | | Prospective homeowner | E.C. | Participant | CEO, Automation Equip | Lumenations' largest distributor | Raquel | Participant | GM, EuroControls | Lumenations' European distributor | Betty | Participant | President, Krystel Electric | Local electrical contractor | Rusty | Participant | President, Rosewind Construction | Custom homebuilder | Emily | Observer | VP and GM, Lumenations | | Various members | Observer | Development team | All team members who were available | The Workshop Prior to the workshop, the team put together a warm-up package consisting of: -
A few recent magazines articles highlighting the trends in home automation -
Copies of selective interviews that had been conducted -
A summarized list of the needs that had been identified to date Rick brushed up on his facilitation skills, and Alyssa handled the logistics for the workshop. The Session The session was held at a hotel near the airport and began promptly at 8 A.M. Rick introduced the agenda for the day and the rules for the workshop, including the workshop tickets. Figure A-6 provides a perspective on the workshop. Figure A-6. HOLIS requirements workshop structure In general, the workshop went very well, and all participants were able to have their input heard . Rick did a fine job of facilitating, but one awkward period occurred when Rick got into an argument with Alyssa about priorities for a couple of features. (The team members decided that for any future workshop, they would bring in an outside facilitator.) Rick led a brainstorming session on potential features for HOLIS, and the team used cumulative voting to decide on relative priorities. Table A-8 shows the results. The Analysis of Results The results of the process turned out as expected, except for two significant items. -
"Built-in security" appeared very high on the priority list. This feature had been mentioned in previous interviews but had not made it to the top of anyone 's priority list. After a quick offline review, Alyssa noted that built-in security, such as the ability to flash lights, an optional horn, and optional emergency call-out system, was apparently not offered by any competitive system. The distributors commented that although they were surprised by this input, they felt that it would be a competitive differentiation and agreed that this should be a high-priority feature. Betty and Rusty agreed. Based on this conclusion, marketing decided to include this functionality and to position it as a unique, competitive differentiator in the marketplace . This became one of the defining features for HOLIS. Table A-8. Features from the HOLIS Workshop, Sorted by Priority ID | Features | Votes | 23 | Custom lighting scenes | 121 | 16 | Automatic timing settings for lights and so on | 107 | 4 | Built-in security features: lights, alarms, and bells | 105 | 6 | 100 percent reliability | 90 | 8 | Easy-to-program, non-PC control unit | 88 | 1 | Easy-to-program control stations | 77 | 5 | Vacation settings | 77 | 13 | Any light can be dimmed | 74 | 9 | Uses my own PC for programming | 73 | 14 | Entertain feature | 66 | 20 | Close garage doors | 66 | 19 | Automatically turn on closet lights when door opened | 55 | 3 | Interface to home security system | 52 | 2 | Easy to install | 50 | 18 | Turn on lights automatically when someone approaches a door | 50 | 7 | Instant lighting on/off | 44 | 11 | Can drive drapes, shades, pumps, and motors | 44 | 15 | Control lighting and so on via phone | 44 | 10 | Interfaces to home automation system | 43 | 22 | Gradual mode: slowly increase/decrease illumination | 34 | 26 | Master control stations | 31 | 12 | Easily expanded when remodeling | 25 | 25 | Internationalized user interface | 24 | 21 | Interface to audio/video system | 23 | 24 | Restore after power fail | 23 | 17 | Controls HVAC | 22 | 28 | Voice activation | 7 | 27 | Web site “like user presentation | 4 | -
In addition, feature 25, "Internationalized user interface," did not get a lot of votes. (This seemed to make sense to the team because the U.S.-based homeowners could not have cared less about how well the product sold in Europe!) The distributor, however, stated flatly that if the product was not internationalized at version 1.0, it would not be introduced in Europe. The team noted this position and agreed to explore the level of effort necessary to achieve internationalization in the 1.0 release. HOLIS System-Level Use-Case Model Survey Table A-9 lists some of the use cases for the HOLIS project. Note that the remainder of the use cases are deleted for brevity; a total of 20 system-level use cases are defined for v1.0 release. Table A-9. HOLIS Use Cases Name | Description | Actor(s) | Create Custom Lighting Scene | Resident creates a custom lighting scene. | Resident, Lights | Initiate Emergency Receiver | Resident initiates emergency action. | Resident | Control Light | Resident turns light(s) on or off or sets desired dim effect. | Resident, Lights | Program Switch | Homeowner/Programmer changes or sets the actions for a particular button/switch. | Homeowner/ Programmer | Remote Programming | Lumenations service provider does remote programming based on request from Resident. | Lumenations Services | On Vacation | Homeowner/Programmer sets vacation setting for extended away period. | Homeowner/ Programmer | Set Timing Sequence | Homeowner/Programmer sets time-based automated lighting sequence. | Homeowner/ Programmer | |