Much of the work is creating successful software is managing the critical "human relationships" between stakeholders and team members. This presents practices and tools for eliciting requirements and strengthening ongoing communication during development. Originally this was an Extended Session at the IEEE/ACM IT Professional Conference held at the 38th Annual Trenton Computer Festival, Saturday 2013-03-16.

1. IEEE/IT-PC at TCF.org

2. Which is the most difficult
language to work in?
C++
Python
Perl
Objective C
None of the above

3. Which is the most difficult
language to work in?
C++
Python
Perl
Objective C
None of the above

4. Which is the most difficult
language to work in?
… English …
… or whatever else is the dominant language used to
communicate in your workplace (e.g., Hindi, Hebrew, French,
Spanish, Tagalog, etc.)

5. What I will talk about isn’t very
technical …
… but it isn’t very easy

6. Think of a good dining
experience

7. … aren’t there really many
involved?

8. … aren’t there really many
involved? Kitchen
and Staff

9. Waiter
Bus Staff
Prep Cook II
Sommelier
(Wine)
Head Chef
Manager
Prep Cook I
Sous Chef

10. User
Representatives
Ultimate
Users
Proponent
Business
Analyst (BA)
Project Managers
(PMO)
Information
Technology (IT)
Funders
Product
Manager
Software

11. User
Representatives
Ultimate
Users
Proponent
Business
Analyst (BA)
Project Managers
(PMO)
Information
Technology (IT)
Funders
Product
Manager
Software

12. User
Representatives
Ultimate
Users
Proponent
Business
Analyst (BA)
Project Managers
(PMO)
Information
Technology (IT)
Funders
Product
Manager
Software

14. Talking to Users
 See exactly what users are actually doing …
 “Job Shadowing”
 Find out what users want …
 Card Sorting … and other methods
 Find out what people are thinking …
 “Survey” … and other methods
 Create designs that fit how users actually do thing
 User-Centered Designs

15. Job Shadowing

16. Usability Test Video
Observation

17. Using “Redesign” Card Sorts
Question 25:
Allow users to preview "Reading" items.
Currently, they can preview "Scripts" and
“Narrative" items

18. “Redesign” Card Sort Matrix Data

19. Low Medium High
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Spell Check* (22)
Undo* (33)
Quick Save (23)
Match tree and
pane labels (15)
Drop Down
Prompts* (4)
Toggle Set Leader
Display *(20)
Fix Graphics
Preview* (31)
Distinct Error
messages (7)
Preview Reading
Items (25)
Spell Check* (22) Spell Check* (22)
Undo* (33)
Toggle Set Leader
Display *(20)
Fix Graphics
Preview* (31)
Show
Augmentation (1)
Remap Error Msgs
(6)
Remove Stray
XML Chars* (29)
Item Text
Search* (27)
RTE Resizing**
(14)
Redesign Upload
Link (16)
Branch only of
XML Tree (22)
Remove Stray
XML Chars* (29)
Item Text
Search* (27)
Drop Down
Prompts* (27)
U
s
e
r
R
e
q
u
e
s
t
s
Implementation Cost
A. “High Value, Low Cost” B. “High Value, Medium Cost”
C. “Low Value, High Cost”

20. Electronic Surveys

21. Online Survey Tool

22. Sofware Satisfaction Results

23. Personas/Roles -> Activities

24. Activity – Menu Structures

25. Translation into Interface
Design

27.  Create more customer feedback channels
 “Client Council”
 Locate all Team members close to each other
 “Colocation”
 Meet weekly all stakeholders
 Multiple Face-to-Face weekly meetings
Teams Talking to Each Other

28. Elite “Client Council” …

29. Weekly Face-to-Face Meetings
with IT decision makers …
IT
Manager

30. Weekly with IT decision makers
… and others
IT
Manager
Marketing
Manager
Project
Manager

31. Colocation – Near each other

32.  Be transparent in decision-making
 Be straightforward and respectful in all dealings
 Be considerate and flexible
… and “play nice”

34. How to make a Masterpiece

35. You create one … by degrees

36. How to change the process
 Change the development models from Waterfall to
more Participative Decision-making
 Get more stakeholders involved in decision-making
 Collect “User Stories” … and document what they say
 Bring Stakeholders together more frequently
 Revise requirements … continually

37. Waterfall Development Model

38. Waterfall -> Iterative

39. Iterative and adding the new

40. Waterfall -> Iterative -> Sprint-like

41. Collect narrative “User Stories”

42. Documenting “User Stories”

43. A Chaotic Example

44. Adding Method to the Madness

45. More Egalitarian Relationships

46. Algonquin Hotel “Roundtable”

47. Group voting among equals

48. Wrap Up
 Human communication helps create great software
 Development Teams must speak with Users
 Development Teams must speak among themselves
 New software development models (agile; Lean UX)
may help promote better communication and
decision-making

50. If I can help …
 “I help make computer systems easier for
people to use”
 Richard D. Herring
 rdherring5@yahoo.com

52. Do you know what these are??

53. Mystery Object #1

54. Mystery Object #2

55. Mystery Object #3

56. Demonstrator Model

57. Mystery Object #4

58. Circa 1975 Announcement

59. Mystery Object #5