Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services > 5. Defining Your Directory Needs > Determining and Prioritizing Users' Needs and Expectations |
Determining and Prioritizing Users' Needs and ExpectationsA great way to measure the overall success of any service is to ask its users whether it meets their needs and expectations. Even if you don't measure your success based on user satisfaction, someone else (such as your boss!) will. Thus, you should ask users about their needs and expectations in advance of the directory service deployment. Because most end users are probably not familiar with the concept of an open , general-purpose directory service, you may need to educate them before you can extract useful information about their directory needs and expectations. If you already have some application-specific directories or an existing general-purpose directory in your organization, the task of determining user needs will be easier. This section discusses some ways you can determine and prioritize your users' needs and expectations. Asking Your UsersOne of the best ways to determine users' needs is to ask them. If it is unrealistic at this point in your directory-planning process to conduct a general survey of your users, begin with an unscientific sample that includes your co-workers and friends and expand your survey later. Some good questions to ask users to help deduce their directory- related needs are these:
Keep in mind that you will need to provide more context and some additional explanations for users who are unfamiliar with the concept of a directory service. It is also useful to ask yourself these same questions ( putting yourself in the users' shoes) and think about how you expect users to take advantage of the directory service in the future. As someone in the process of becoming a directory expert (or who is one already), you almost certainly have ideas that your users do not. In addition to or instead of directly asking users about their needs, you should ask administrators of existing systems about the needs of the users they support. Managers and directors of specific departments are also a good source of information about the people who work for them. Talking to people who support or manage users is an especially valuable approach if your directory deployment will replace one or more existing proprietary directories. For example, the people who administer an electronic mail system should have some insight into how the users they support would use the new directory service. Accuracy and Completeness of DataOne area that users often have great expectations for (even if it is not mentioned explicitly) is the completeness and accuracy of the data stored in the directory service. Many people expect the data to be very complete and up-to-date, and they may become disillusioned with your service if they discover otherwise . For example, one of the most common reasons users access a directory service is to look up contact information about other people, including voice and fax telephone numbers , email addresses, and postal mailing addresses. If the information in your directory is incomplete or stale, people will quickly learn to not trust your directory service. Because users may not volunteer these data-related expectations, be sure to ask them in a way that makes sense to them. For example, a question like "What is the maximum tolerable propagation delay when replicating directory data?" is much more intimidating than one like "If you change your telephone number, how soon do you expect the change to appear in all the online systems?" Even better is to provide choices for the user, such as "Within five minutes," "Within one hour ," and "The same day." PrivacyAnother interesting and sometimes contentious set of user needs and expectations is centered on personal privacy. Because your directory service will probably store some data about each person in your organization, it is important to ask your users about their privacy expectations. Some users will be relatively unconcerned about who has access to personal information, whereas others will be very concerned . When asking people about their privacy concerns, be sure to explain what data you plan to store and to whom you plan to grant access. A lack of understanding of the needs and expectations surrounding personal privacy can lead to some unpleasant political problems as you begin to deploy your directory, so be sure to put some thought into it during the design process. The topic of privacy is discussed in greater detail in Chapter 11. AudienceNext , consider how broad the audience for your directory service might become. For example, will the service be accessible only to people inside your organization, or do you plan to replicate some information to a server outside your firewall? If your site does not have a firewall, the audience for the directory service potentially includes everyone on the Internet, although access control could be used to restrict the audience. It is up to you to decide who the important members of your user base are and design an appropriate service. Access control rules may be used, for example, to limit access given to anonymous users of the directory. Also consider any special needs of your users. For example, in a multinational corporation, the directory service must serve people who come from a variety of cultural backgrounds; thus, differences in language, privacy expectations, laws, and other areas may be important. The Relationship of User Needs to Application NeedsUser needs and application needs are often tied together. Most directory-enabled applications ultimately serve a set of users, so some of your user needs come to your service indirectly via the needs of applications. You should work with those responsible for deploying the applications to understand how the needs of the users of each application impact the design of your directory service. It is also important to consider the needs of the system administrators of your directory-enabled applications and all the other administrators within your organization. The directory service itself and the tools provided for maintenance of it must ultimately meet the needs of both end users and all the different kinds of administrators within your organization. For example, you may need to develop a special tool that Help Desk personnel can use to easily reset an end user's directory password. The needs of system administrators often lead to some deployment constraints, as discussed in the next major section of this chapter. Prioritizing Your Users' NeedsAs for all directory needs, you should try to order the list of users' needs by importance. The process of setting priorities is based partly on fairness (for example, "Many people mentioned this need.") and partly on politics (for example, "The director of my department thinks this is very important."). Try to be realistic about what you can accomplish, but also be careful not to place a lower priority on a user's need just because you don't agree that it is important.
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Index terms contained in this sectionaccuracyuser needs applications needs user needs audiences user needs data completeness user needs defining directory needs user needs 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th feedback user 2nd needs application user needs directories user needs 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th user accuracy and completeness of data application needs audiences prioritizing privacy soliciting feedback 2nd prioritizing user needs privacy user needs security user needs privacy 2nd users needs accuracy and completeness of data application needs audiences prioritizing privacy soliciting feedback 2nd |
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