Influencing System Quality by Using Decision Diaries in Prototyping Projects

Abstract

In this paper 1) the need for decision making to be transparent in prototyping projects is discussed and 2) a way to document decision making during such projects is suggested. Further, by extending the established idea of diaries, the use of a diary-based process documentation technique in several prototyping projects is evaluated. This is done in order to examine the extent to which the documentation techniques influence the quality of the system. Projects in which these aspects were tested are described. Decision diaries were used in order to manage and improve the decision making process and in order to make the decisions related to the design more transparent The underlying asmmption was that transparency would improve the quality of the decisions and thus, the system. User satisfaction reports are analyzed. They indicare that decision diaries make decision making more explicit and thus increase the quality of the system design process and the product.