User Analysis (Task)

Definition

User Analysis

the requirements engineering task during which the current and future intended user organizations of the system(s) and/or application(s) of the customer organization’s business enterprise are identified, studied, modeled, and analyzed

Classification

As illustrated in the preceding figure, User Analysis is part of the following inheritance hierarchy:

• Type: Abstract
• Superclass: Business Analysis
• Subclasses:
  • None

Responsibilities

The typical responsibilities of User Analysis are to:

• Identify the different kinds of users and user organization(s).
• Understand their needs and desires as well as the relevant tasks they perform.
• Provide a foundation on which to:
  • Produce creative ways to organize and improve user tasks and workflows.
  • Design application user interfaces (e.g., navigation and screens or webpages).

Preconditions

User analysis can typically begin when the following preconditions hold:

• The business strategy phase (or the initiation phase) has started.
• The business strategy team (or the requirements team) has been adequately staffed and trained in the user analysis task.

• The stakeholder profiling task has identified and profiled users.

Completion Criteria

User analysis is typically complete when the following postconditions hold:

• The different kinds of users and their organizations have been identified, profiled, and analyzed.
• The user profiles and user/task matrice(s) have been developed, evaluated, and approved.
• The user analysis document has been developed, evaluated, approved, and delivered to the customer organization.

Steps

User analysis typically involves the business strategy team performing the following steps in an iterative, incremental, parallel, and time-boxed manner:

• Identify the Users.
  Identify the different kinds of target users (e.g., by user roles of job titles) and associated user organizations by determining who will:
  • Benefit from the reorganized business enterprise, especially from its new or updated application(s).
  • Be supported by the reorganized business enterprise.
  • Be interested in the application’s associated content and functionality.
  • Have access to the applications (especially the distributed, network-based applications).
• Obtain Information about the Users.
  Use multiple techniques to obtain relevant input from:
  • User Representative(s) from each group of users including user management.
  • Domain Expert(s) (e.g., industry analysts).
  • Customer Representative(s).
  • Marketing Representative(s).
  • User Support Agent(s).
• Analyze the User’s Tasks.
  For each classification of user, use the task analysis technique to analyze their associated tasks:
  • Identify the current and planned user tasks.
  • Allocate these tasks to user types (e.g., roles, job titles) to create one or more user/task matrices.
  • Analyze each identified user task:
    • Determine its objective(s).
    • Determine the frequency of performing the task.
    • Determine the importance of performing the task.
    • Determine the current steps of the tasks (with the user’s intent).
    • Identify potential new ways of performing these tasks.
    • Determine the situation (e.g., when, where) in which the user performs the tasks.
• Produce the User Analysis Document.
  Combine the information in the informal user profiles and user/task matrice(s) to produce the user analysis document.

Techniques

User analysis typically can be performed using the following techniques:

• Cross Functional Teams.
  Use a cross-functional strategy or requirements team including multiple roles to perform user analysis.
• Demonstration of prototype user-interfaces.
• Incremental development.
  Incrementally perform user analysis.
• Interviews with:
  • User Representative(s) from each group of users including user management.
  • Domain Expert(s) (e.g., industry analysts).
  • Customer Representative(s).
  • Marketing Representative(s).
  • User Support Agent(s).
• Iteration.
  Iterate the user profiles, user/task matricies, and user analysis document.
• Observation (a.k.a., Anthropological or Ethnographic Research) of users:
  • Observe and record representative users performing relevant tasks with current applications, prototype of future applications, or competitor’s applications.
  • Have users vocalize their thoughts as they perform their tasks.
  • Summarize and document the resulting findings.
• Questionnaires:
  • Post an email questionnaire or survey.
  • Set up a Web or intranet questionnaire or survey.
• Joint Application Development.
  Hold user analysis sessions with focus groups of relevant roles:
  • Obtain an experienced facilitator.
  • Obtain and schedule an appropriate facility.
  • Recruit representative [potential] users (e.g., from a user group, email discussion group, or advertisements).
  • Provide information and questions about the planned application (e.g., slides, demonstration, sample user interface, questionnaire, and/or checklist).
  • Lead the discussion.
  • Obtain anonymous feedback.
• Parallel Development.
  Perform user analysis in parallel with:
  • Other requirements engineering tasks (e.g., customer analysis, market analysis, technology analysis, requirements reuse, requirements management).
  • Other activities (e.g., architecting, management, configuration management, training).
• Timeboxing.
  Timebox the user analysis task so that new increments of user information are available at regular intervals.
• Usability Testing of prototype user-interface.
• User-Centered Design (UCD).
• Task Analysis.
  Perform task analysis to understand the user’s tasks and how they are performed.

Work Products

User analysis typically results in the production of the following work products:

• User Profiles
• User/Task Matrix
• User Analysis

Guidelines

The following guidelines have proven useful when performing user analysis:

• The better the requirements team understands the users, the better they can produce user-oriented requirements.
• The information listed above to be collected is probably a superset of the information actually needed for any specific user analysis task. It is intended to be tailored to meet the needs of the specific endeavor, primarily by tailoring out inappropriate content.
• User analysis should typically be performed during the business strategy phase, but it can also be performed during the initiation phase if insufficient business [re]engineering was required to justify a separate business strategy phase.
• The questions asked during user analysis vary depending on the type of application. For example, a B2C application with private individuals as customers vs. a B2B application with employees as users.
• User analysis is a prerequisite for successfully performing user-centered design technique and the content personalization task.