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2004
Report
Titel
UseLine: Process description and case-study
Abstract
In this report we describe the results of the UseLine Project, a project that was funded by the "Stiftung Rheinland Pfalz für Innovation" under grant number 0621. In this project, the interplay between the two Software Engineering disciplines Usability Engineering on the one hand and Product Line Engineering on the other hand is investigated. Although both disciplines seem to contain contra-dictory elements - e.g. Usability Engineering focuses on the individual user whereas Product Line engineering concentrates on reuse and commonality between products an integrated approach that focuses on both aspects has advantages. Especially for small and medium enterprises who traditionally have a strong customer focus and do often not have the time and money to introduce both - Product Line engineering and Usability engineering - an integrated approach can help to achieve a large market advantage - a usable Product Line. In this report we describe the useline approach for planning and requirements engineering of usable Product Lines. The approach explicitly considers the business goals of an organisation, helps to identify user tasks and product features and domains and improves the Usability of central and reusable tasks. For the latter a new Usability inspection method was developed which should suit well for small development teams and projects and persons which are unskilled in Usability methods. The approach was applied in a small company in Kaiserslautern. We also describe our experiences with applying the approach there and give examples on the artefacts produced.
Verlagsort
Kaiserslautern