User Analysis (Work Product)

Definition

A user analysis is the business (re)engineering requirements work product that documents the results of the analysis of the user organization(s) that use the customer organization’s applications.

Objectives

The typical objectives of the user analysis are to:

• Document the results of the user analysis task.
• Document each user organization.
• Document the different kinds of users in each user organization.

Benefits

The typical benefits of the user analysis are:

• Only by analyzing the users of the customer organization’s applications can the customer organization be reengineered to better support their users.
• User analysis forms the foundation for User Centered Design (UCD) and user interface design.

Contents

The typical contents of the user analysis are:

• Overview
• User Organizations:
  • Description
  • Responsibilities
  • Size
  • Trends
  • User Types
• User Type Profiles:
  • Description
  • Responsibilities
  • Goals
  • Demographics
  • Evaluation Criteria
• Conclusion
• Appendices:
  • Major Issues
  • TBDs
  • Assumptions

Stakeholders

The typical stakeholders of the user analysis are:

• Producers:
  • Business Strategy Team
• Evaluators:
  • Strategy Inspection Team
  • Customer Organization, which inspects the content for correctness
• Approvers:
  • Technical Leader
  • Project Manager
  • Customer Representative
• Maintainer:
  • Business Strategy Team
• Users:
  • Business Strategy Team, which uses the user analysis to:
    • Develop the business vision statement.
    • Architect the business.
  • User Experience Team, which uses the user analysis to develop the human interfaces.

Phases

A user analysis is typically produced during the following phases:

• Business Strategy: Completed
• Business Optimization: Maintained
• Initiation: Not Applicable
• Construction: Not Applicable
• Delivery: Not Applicable
• Usage: Not Applicable
• Retirement: Not Applicable

Preconditions

A user analysis typically can be started if the following preconditions hold:

• The initation phase is started.
• The business strategy team has been staffed and trained in user analysis.

Inputs

The typical inputs to a user analysis include:

• Documentation:
  • Customer organization marketing materials
  • Other relevant customer organization documents
  • Customer Analysis
  • Market Analysis
  • User Profiles
  • User/Task Matrix
• Stakeholders:
  • Usability Domain Experts
  • Marketing Domain Experts

Guidelines

• This is a living document that is developed incrementally and iteratively in parallel with other documents.
• This document should typically produced during the business strategy phase of a business reengineering project However, it may also be either created or updated during the initiation phase of an application development project.

Conventions

A user analysis is typically constrained by the following conventions:

• Content and Format Standard
• MS Word Template
• XML DTD
• Inspection Checklist

Examples

• Example User Analysis