When to Involve the End User in a Project

The success of a software project how easily the end-users adopts it… This also means that the software solution or product that you are going to deliver should be user-friendly and should improve the end-user productivity.

Recently I was working on a Project for a particular group of a client, where they were using a MS-Excel based system to get their things done. It was decentralized system where different team member work on their piece of excel sheet and then all the works were consolidated, verified and reports were generated.

We got this Project to convert the existing system to Web based Centralized application. Now as a part of requirement understanding we also created prototype of this application which contained a nice Form based interfaces.

The business stakeholder were happy to see the prototype but when we displayed it to the end-user one of them raised concern that in Excel System they could quickly enter the enter data in tabular sheet and saved the entire sheet with single go…whereas with this form based approach they will be able to enter single record at a time which can be time consuming to them.

Well it was a nice observation…and as we got the early feedback from the client we could offer them two solution, one was grid based form and the second alternative was they fill a excel document in a given format and our application able to import data from it.

So coming back to the original question, When should we involve end users in Project? The short reply would be involve them if possible in all the phases and as early as possible:

1. During the Requirement Phase: These are the actual users though they might not be able to tell you how exactly the system works, but they can give you valuable insight like how it works, how things can be better.
2. During the Design Phase:  Though the end-user is never concerned about what hardware you are going to use or the sophisticated design pattern you want to implement. But at times you need to understand the behavior expected from the application on a given scenario, during these times the end users will be a great help.
3. During the Development: If you have anything presentable to the user, you can show it to him and get early feedback on whether that part of application meets the end-users expectation.
4. During the User Acceptance Test: Probably your end-user will least bother you during this phase if end-user was actively involved in the previous steps.

Benefits of involving End Users early on are:

1. Active involvement of end-user from early stages of project will increase user adaptability.
2. Early verification of users expectation will result in less amount of rework.
3. Help you identify and fix issues at the early stages of project.
4. An involved end-user means a happy customer.

Summary:
Involve your end users as early as possible, as the system or solution you are going to provide will be used by the same end-users. Involving end-user will give them the feeling of contributing to the project and ensure having a satisfied customer at your end.

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