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Improving Product Success: Studying Existing Products for Software Specification

Learn how to use existing products as a starting point to identify missing functions, measure satisfaction, and test the adequacy of requirements. Discover techniques to avoid feature creep and balance user demands with simplicity and cost-effectiveness.

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Improving Product Success: Studying Existing Products for Software Specification

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  1. G&W Chapter 23: Studying Existing ProductsSoftware SpecificationLecture 30 Prepared by Stephen M. Thebaut, Ph.D. University of Florida

  2. Part V: Greatly Improving the Odds of Success • Ambiguity Metrics • Technical Reviews • Measuring Satisfaction • Test Cases • Studying Existing Products • Making Agreements • Ending

  3. Rationale • Chapter 5 briefly discussed the use of norms (existing products)as an RE starting point. • This chapter concerns the use of norms as an ending point – to test the adequacy of requirements.

  4. G&W’s Process • Compare the products to learn of missing functions in the new product. (Missing functions may not be an oversight, but be prepared to explain why they are missing and how the user is to do without them.)

  5. G&W’s Process (cont’d) • Interview users of the existing product to develop a list of its missing functions. What doesn’t work in the existing product? What groups of people have what troubles with the existing product?

  6. G&W’s Process (cont'd) • Compare the existing product with its original requirements. Look for requirements that weren’t implemented or wereimplemented and then scrapped. (Sources of old requirements: “pack rats”; old news releases, articles, advertisements, and marketing literature; old timers.) Can you remember anything that was promised but never delivered? Anything taken out?

  7. G&W’s Process (cont'd) • Avoid the temptation to create a Swiss Army knife out of the new product. Don’t let “features” creep in without subjecting them to the full requirements process. Instead of trying to compete with everyone on a feature-by-feature comparison, try to identify the functions that will be needed to compete, then develop attributes of those functions in the usual way.

  8. Hints and Variations • Asking people to reminisce about the early days of the previous product may provide hints about what is needed to get the new product accepted in a given environment. • Ask about other projects that never produced products, or produced products that were withdrawn from use.

  9. Hints and Variations (cont'd) • Upgrading products sometimes results in a dilemma: • Current users want lots of new features and also want to retain old features. • But to win new users, the product must be kept simple and cheap. Is there a solution? If so, can you think of software products that have evolved in this manner?

  10. G&W Chapter 23: Studying Existing ProductsSoftware SpecificationLecture 30 Prepared by Stephen M. Thebaut, Ph.D. University of Florida

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