Checklist “Helping Users of Software”

This checklist helps you think about the situation when people seem to be using software less productively than they should.

User Support

• The product and its users:
  • What does the software do?
  • Who are the users?
  • What do they already know and what are their capabilities?
  • Does the product relate to the users' current experiences?
  • Does the product have a steep or shallow learning curve?
  • What sorts of question do the users typically have?
• The development process:
  • Are changes expected in the short term?
  • Are updates expected in the future? How frequently?
    
• Technical issues:
  • What platform does the software run on?
• Organizational issues:
  • Is there a preference for a particular type of support? If so, what is the reason behind that preference?
  • What should the support, be it documentation or something else, achieve?
• People issues:
  
  • What can your own people do?
  • Would there be side-effects to involving your own people as much as possible? Would these be beneficial or not?
    
• How important are the following factors, and why:
  • Maintainability?
  • Value for marketing purposes?
  • Factual accuracy and completeness?
  • Userfriendliness?