How to Identify Changing Contexts of Use with Creativity Workshops

An Experience Report

authored by
Wasja Brunotte, Lukas Nagel, Kurt Schneider, Jil Ann-Christin Klünder
Abstract

Several software systems struggle with different contexts of use, e.g., due to a huge variety of end-user groups or various application scenarios. In some cases, the use of software systems may change due to external factors such as a pandemic. However, in other cases, software systems are known to be used in various contexts even before they are developed. In this case, it is crucial to consider as many different contexts of use as possible right from the beginning in order to avoid costly changes later on and, above all, user dissatisfaction. However, even when it is known that the software system will be used in different contexts, these contexts are often neither obvious nor easy to identify. We propose to use workshops with stakeholders as a mean to identify different contexts of use. These workshops can be conducted at different points in time, but in this paper, we present a workshop conducted before starting the development phase, that is, during the requirements elicitation phase (to identify the different contexts of use as early as possible). We conducted such a workshop in a large interdisciplinary research project with different institutions from research and practice. In this paper, we present the workshop structure and its results, our experiences, as well as take-aways highlighting how (online) workshops might support the requirements elicitation when different contexts of use are to be expected.

Organisation(s)
Software Engineering Section
PhoenixD: Photonics, Optics, and Engineering - Innovation Across Disciplines
Type
Conference contribution
Pages
88-97
No. of pages
10
Publication date
20.03.2022
Publication status
Published
Peer reviewed
Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Theoretical Computer Science, Computer Science(all)
Electronic version(s)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98388-8_9 (Access: Closed)