title: Measuring anticipated satisfaction
creator: Proynova, Rumyana
subject: ddc-004
subject: 004 Data processing Computer science
description: When developing a software system, one of the early steps is to create a requirements specification.  Validating this specification saves implementation effort which might be otherwise spent  on building a system with the wrong features. Ideally, this validation should involve many stakeholders  representing different groups, to ensure coverage of a variety of viewpoints. However,  the usual requirements validation methods such as personal interviews only allow the involvement  of a few stakeholders before the costs become prohibitive, so it is difficult to apply them at  the needed scale.  If the finished software system contains undesirable features, they are likely to be discovered  during usability testing. Many usability methods can involve a high number of users at a low  cost, for example satisfaction surveys and A/B testing in production. They can give high quality  information about improving the system, but they require a completed system or at least an  advanced prototype before they can be used.  We create a method for measuring user satisfaction before building the system, which we call  anticipated satisfaction to distinguish it from the actual satisfaction measured after the user has  experienced the system. The method uses a questionnaire which contains short descriptions  of the software system’s features, and asks the users to imagine how satisfied they would be  when using a system with the described features. The method is flexible, as we do not create  a single questionnaire to use. Instead, we give guidance on which variables can be measured  with the questionnaire, and how to create questions for them. This allows the development team  to tailor the questionnaire to the specific situation in their project. When we applied it in two  validation studies, it discovered significant issues and was rated favorably by both the software  development team and the users.  Our method contributes to the discipline of software engineering by offering a new option for validating  software requirements. It is more scalable than interviewing users, and can be employed  before the implementation phase, allowing for early problem detection. The effort required to  apply it is low, and the information gained is seen as useful by both developers and managers,  which makes it a good candidate for use in commercial projects.
date: 2018
type: Dissertation
type: info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis
type: NonPeerReviewed
format: application/pdf
identifier: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserverhttps://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/25327/1/phd-thesis-proynova.pdf
identifier: DOI:10.11588/heidok.00025327
identifier: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-253276
identifier:   Proynova, Rumyana  (2018) Measuring anticipated satisfaction.  [Dissertation]     
relation: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/25327/
rights: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights: Please see front page of the work (Sorry, Dublin Core plugin does not recognise license id)
language: eng