Hi Todd,
I've looked at this question over more decades than I care to
mention from the angle of an analyst gathering user requirements, a
software product designer and a user of software and other products.
I agree with the premise in your first paragraph, though there you
are looking at false positives ("we need this now" when in fact
they don't). My experience has been that the big problem is with
unidentified needs - the false negatives ("I didn't realize I would
need that"). There's a very old saying (meaning I can't remember
who said it) that goes "Users don't know what they want until they
see what they get."
This is so deeply true that's it's almost trivial - except I wish
I'd been the first to say it. It's when people start to use
something that they realize the possibilities and then make further
demands. Hence project overruns, feature freezes, agile development,
and a hundred other outcomes and software provision strategies.
But IMO agile development with multiple partial deliveries, user
involvement in design and giving immediate feedback can be a
solution. But in many cases it just isn't possible, financially,
politically or on the available timeline.
The other way round ("I must have a forum") is even harder. Maybe
they don't need a forum and when they get it, time will be soaked up
in non-productive ways, maybe they don't need it, but when they have
it new undreemed of possibilities will open up. Or maybe, of course,
they really need it, know exactly why, and go forward to use it that
way.
I can't point you at any research on this, but I believe that such
research if identifed would be for a very specific set of
circumstances. You appear to be looking for references to a general
solution. As a management consultant I agree with your 'define the
goals' comment, but that isn't a solution that helps when users
find a truly beneficial but unexpected application of something they
got by saying "I need one of those".
In the end it often comes down to the cost and the justification.
Roy
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=29215
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