Support for cooperative design of end-user tailorable software

Abstract

Many contemporary business areas are dynamic and characterized by change. End-user tailorable software that allows the users to continue its evolution and adjustment is suitable in such environments. Unfortunately, the changes in the environment make it hard to know what flexibility to build into the software. The study presented here was aimed at providing an instrument that makes it possible to distinguish between different types of end-user tailoring, and to support discussions between users and developers concerning what kind of tailorability to build into the software. The study was performed in cooperation with a telecom company where tailorable software is essential to keep up with the fast changing market. The study resulted in ten attributes characterizing end-user tailorable software and a matrix capturing the values of the attributes. The matrix can be used as a guide and a basis for design decisions when implementing end-user tailorable software. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.