Persona Usage in Software Development: Advantages and Obstacles

Jane Billestrup, Jan Stage, Lene Nielsen, Kira Storgaard Hansen

    Research output: Conference Article in Proceeding or Book/Report chapterArticle in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

    Abstract

    The Personas technique has been promoted as a
    strong tool for providing software developers with a better
    understanding of the prospective users of their software. This
    paper reports from a questionnaire survey regarding knowledge
    about Personas and their usage in software development
    companies. The questionnaire survey was conducted in a limited
    geographical area to establish the extent of Personas usage
    within all companies in the chosen region and determine
    whether software development companies used Personas during
    the development process. Several issues were identified as
    reasons for either not using the technique or for poor application
    of it. The study showed that 55% of the respondents had never
    heard about Personas. Among those who had heard about the
    Personas technique, the following obstacles towards usage of the
    technique were identified: Lack of knowledge of the technique,
    lack of resources (time and funding), Sparse descriptions – when
    applied and Personas not being integrated in the development.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationProceedings of ACHI 2014, The Seventh International Conference on Advances in Computer - Human Interactions
    EditorsL. Miller
    PublisherIARIA XPS Press
    Publication date23 Mar 2014
    ISBN (Print)978-1-61208-325-4, 9781632662477
    Publication statusPublished - 23 Mar 2014

    Keywords

    • Personas
    • Software Development
    • User Understanding
    • Questionnaire Survey
    • Obstacles to Adoption

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