Who uses personas in requirements engineering: The practitioners’ perspective

IF 3.8 2区计算机科学 Q2 COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS Information and Software Technology Pub Date : 2024-11-09 DOI:10.1016/j.infsof.2024.107609

Yi Wang , Chetan Arora , Xiao Liu , Thuong Hoang , Vasudha Malhotra , Ben Cheng , John Grundy

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Abstract

Context:

Personas are commonly employed in software projects to better understand end-users needs. Despite their frequent usage, there is a limited understanding of their practical application and effectiveness.

Objective:

This paper aims to investigate the current practices, methods, and challenges associated with using personas in software development.

Methods:

A two-step investigation was conducted, comprising interviews with 26 software developers, UI/UX designers, business analysts, and product managers, along with a survey of 203 practitioners.

Results:

The findings reveal variations in the frequency and effectiveness of personas across different software projects and IT companies. Additionally, the study highlights the challenges practitioners face when using personas and the reasons for not using them. Notably, the research shows that some human aspects (e.g., the needs of users with disabilities), often assumed to be a key feature of personas, are frequently not considered for various reasons in requirements engineering.

Conclusions:

The study provides actionable insights for practitioners to overcome challenges in using personas during the requirements engineering stages. Furthermore, it identifies areas for future research to enhance the effectiveness of personas in software development.

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谁在需求工程中使用角色？实践者的视角

背景：为了更好地了解最终用户的需求，"角色 "通常被用于软件项目中。目的：本文旨在研究当前在软件开发中使用角色的实践、方法以及相关的挑战。方法：本文进行了两步调查，包括对 26 名软件开发人员、用户界面/用户体验设计师、业务分析师和产品经理进行访谈，以及对 203 名从业人员进行调查。结果：研究结果显示，在不同的软件项目和 IT 公司中，使用角色的频率和有效性存在差异。此外，研究还强调了从业人员在使用角色时所面临的挑战，以及不使用角色的原因。结论：本研究为从业人员克服在需求工程阶段使用 "角色 "所面临的挑战提供了可操作的见解。此外，它还指出了未来研究的领域，以提高 "角色 "在软件开发中的有效性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Information and Software Technology 工程技术-计算机：软件工程

CiteScore

9.10

自引率

7.70%

发文量

164

审稿时长

9.6 weeks

期刊介绍： Information and Software Technology is the international archival journal focusing on research and experience that contributes to the improvement of software development practices. The journal''s scope includes methods and techniques to better engineer software and manage its development. Articles submitted for review should have a clear component of software engineering or address ways to improve the engineering and management of software development. Areas covered by the journal include: • Software management, quality and metrics, • Software processes, • Software architecture, modelling, specification, design and programming • Functional and non-functional software requirements • Software testing and verification & validation • Empirical studies of all aspects of engineering and managing software development Short Communications is a new section dedicated to short papers addressing new ideas, controversial opinions, "Negative" results and much more. Read the Guide for authors for more information. The journal encourages and welcomes submissions of systematic literature studies (reviews and maps) within the scope of the journal. Information and Software Technology is the premiere outlet for systematic literature studies in software engineering.