Section 3. Users of the Product

3. Users of the Product

Users are the people who interact directly with your product. They are, of course, another type of stakeholder. Because of their major significance in the requirements-gathering effort, however, we have chosen to give them a section of their own in the template. In this section, you identify all the people who might conceivably make use of the product. The users become clear when you identify the product boundary during trawling. In this part of the specification, you describe them and their characteristics.

The engineers located at the truck depot are the main user group. The engineers have a detailed knowledge of road types, road locations, and road networks. They are all experienced in using personal computers for a wide variety of applications, including word processing and computer-aided design. All have a degree in engineering, and all of them speak English. Sonia Henning is the Road Engineering Supervisor.

The Highways Department clerks are located at the Highways Department head office in Newcastle. Dick Button is the Clerical Supervisor. The clerks do not necessarily have any knowledge of the subject matter of roads and weather forecasts. Some of the clerks have used personal computers; however, do not assume familiarity with technology. Most have GCSE O levels, they are aged between 18 and 60, and all can read and speak English.

The clerks work for local government organizations. Refer to the employment rules for specification of the types of disabilities that must be catered for.

The product is to help the users do their work; you could also think of it as improving their work. You also write usability requirements to suit the characteristics of the users.

The functional requirements come from studying the users' work, so it is important to correctly identify the people actually doing the work at the moment. Similarly, the better the description of the users you write, the easier it is to determine the usability requirements. Make a point of including any unusual characteristics of the userswhether they might be angry, in a hurry, have only one arm free (for example, a waiter), and so on. This section of specification is where you detail your knowledge of the users. You take advantage of this work throughout the specification process to help you to define requirements relevant to these particular users.

You can find a discussion of user characteristics in Chapter 3, Project Blastoff, and more guidance in appendix D, Project Sociology Analysis Templates.