Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
I don't use or even want?
Ideally, computer software evolves in perfect response to cus
tomer wishes and needs. In practice, however, the “features” of
software do not always match the actual needs or wishes of individ
uals. Try to think of a feature that a computer that you work with
has that you don't like or use. For example, a wordprocessing pro
gram may persistently “correct” your work, when you actually
mean precisely what you've written. This discrepancy between the
ideal and practice can arise in several ways. Here are a few poten
tial causes:
Needs and interests of people differ. Thus, when software is
to serve a large number of people, the features wanted by
some may be different from those desired by others. In this
case, some people may like automatic correction of a word
processing document, whereas others may not.
Even if everyone agreed that automatic correction was desir
able, the notion of what is correct and what is not may de
pend upon context. For example, in Chapter 1 of this topic,
we used CPU as an abbreviation for the central processing
unit. In the context of computing and Chapter 1, CPU was a
correct spelling. However, in another context, the same se
quence of letters might reflect a spelling error.
In a competitive environment, developers of one software
package often want their software to be seen as superior to
that of others. Thus, the developers may include capabilities
found in other packages, and they may add their own en
hancements to obtain what they hope will be a competitive
edge. They may worry that their product may seem inferior
or outdated if others' can do something their software does
not do. Although this perspective may add many capabilities,
it does not follow that all users will find these additions help
ful or desirable.
Software developers may adopt a perspective that, over time,
customers will appreciate a feature—even if they do not cur
rently think they want or need it. Such a perspective might be
viewed positively (the developers are anticipating future user
