The rise in digitization is resulting in an increasing number of applications which aren’t just optional for users, they’re mandatory, which means that user interface design, and in turn issues related to user experience (UX) and user interface, are now moving into the spotlight.

Just think of the check-in process for low-cost airlines, which is increasingly being provided only online, or the ability to make contact with public authorities outside of business hours. This was completely impossible just a few years ago, but today is part of every digitalization strategy. And just over this past year, many of us are ordering food by smartphone, since more and more restaurants are no longer providing this service face-to-face.

User Interface as a Central Point of Reference

This increasing (and sometimes exclusive) use of online methods as a way to make contact with our customers means that user interfaces are replacing personal customer contact – the friendly word, small ways of showering attention on customers and interpersonal relationships in general – and as a result, our websites need to make customers feel at home.

What Makes for Good UX Design?

The obvious conclusion is that a good user interface must be modern and clearly structured, and must always be accessible by all users, including the disabled – this last requirement goes without saying. However, in reality many applications don’t focus too strongly on the first two items.

In particular, a good user interface must be appropriate to its task, and must also be able to helpand guide users through every step of the application, without being patronizing. Interface evaluation cannot take place in an environment which is far removed from reality, which unfortunately is often the case in software tests. For example, actual users will use their smartphones right in the middle of the street, use their tablets as they’re relaxing in front of the TV, or may just have something better to do than to muddle through the system of user guidance we’ve come up with. We need to be able to meet users at whatever point they actually use our application, and to be aware of how they interact with it.

As a result, it’s an absolute necessity to have a solid knowledge of not only our users, but also their environment, their suggestions and their usage habits, and develop our applications in line with that. Although a pretty user interface is certainly a great thing for customers and developers, it can be frustrating for an actual user if it’s not also appropriate to its task, helpful and in general a satisfying experience.

Key Factors in UX

User Experience describes a user’s perceptions and reactions which arise as a result of the use or presumed use of a product, system or service. Achieving a positive user experience requires work on a wide variety of aspects, which must eventually also brought into harmony with one another.

The following areas in the field of User Experience are especially receiving attention these days:

• Information architecture describes structuring and organizing information in such a way that it’s easy for users to collect, evaluate and use.
• Interaction design is concerned with the various aspects of human-machine interaction. In addition to technology as well as the timing and sequence of events involved in an interaction, its social and emotional aspects are receiving greater consideration and being included more.
• Usability describes how an application will support users in the given use context.
• Visual design, or UI Design, is the UX area responsible for the aesthetic design of the final product.

Considerations related to User Experience must begin right from the start of a project, involving close work with usability experts (first as a business analyst and later as a requirements engineer) to identify and prepare the groundwork required for optimal solutions.

We’ve just released a new training package which focuses on Usability and User Experience, and is based on recognized standards in the UXQB field. These courses will give you the tools you need to meet digitalization project challenges related to User Experience.

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The term artificial intelligence (AI) comes up in the IT world time and time again – but what does it actually mean? The truth is, there’s no single generally accepted definition for artificial intelligence. In principle, the term describes systems which have the ability to perform activities normally associated with human intelligence, such as learning, logical… Continue Reading Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Medicine

Moving IT services to the cloud is currently a key issue for many companies. A critical factor in this move is not only making applications, databases and network structures cloud-appropriate, companies also need to consider how they’ll administer their cloud services in the future. In this blog article, we’ll share with you what we’ve learned from our practical experience regarding possibilities and success factors for good cloud management.

Using cloud services, such as the well-known public clouds offered by AWS, Azure and Google, provides businesses the following advantages:

• The resources they need can be scaled.
• Costs and administration are transparent and are traceable.
• Specialized services such as AI, blockchain and specialized caches are easy to access and use.

Case Example: Moving a Company into the Cloud

Let’s take the example of an international Austrian-based company which up to now has used servers in the data center of an external provider, who’s also responsible for server administration and for installing the applications used there. IT and other services are billed on a monthly basis. Before converting to cloud services, the company needs to ask itself how this relationship should be regulated. The following three items are essential at the very start for successful cloud management:

• Clearly defining the cloud administrator’s role
• Using container technologies such as Docker
• Making optimal use of scalability

Clearly defining the cloud administrator’s role

When moving up into the cloud, it’s a good idea to clearly define, and if necessary reorganize, interfaces between application developers, infrastructure providers (cloud providers) and the eventual cloud administrator.

The role of cloud administrator can be assumed either internally, or by an external service provider. If that role is taken on by an external service provider, the subscription should not be in the name of the cloud administrator but that of the client, and should also have clear guidelines for the actual users of resources. This makes it possible for the client to directly receive billing for the resources used and therefore have complete transparency, through the detailed bill itemization, of the structure of the costs which actually accrued.

The subscription should give the cloud administrator access to resources, but not the right to change the subscription itself (e.g. methods of payment). Should it become necessary to make change administrators (e.g. because the service provider becomes insolvent or just performs poorly), this can just be done through authorization (users and permissions granted).

Using container technologies such as Docker

Because of the complications involved in installing software applications, the interface between application development and administration is often complex. Container technologies such as Docker provide a good solution to this problem, especially when a business is using cloud services.

Relying on container technologies such as Docker then makes it possible for cloud administration to concentrate on essential tasks, namely using cloud resources (processors, storage, load balancing, CDN, managed databases, etc.) to create a system environment which is secure, scalable, high-performance and cost-effective.

Application developers are then responsible for completely provisioning software on the basis of containers. Application installation becomes unnecessary, since the container contains the fully configured runtime environment. As a result, this also rules out installation errors.

Making optimal use of scalability

Since they can be continuously kept at constant capacity, it’s currently still more cost-effective to maintain virtual machines in traditional data centers than in the cloud. Nevertheless, a key attraction of cloud packages lies in the fact that those services which a business cannot maintain in its own data center in a comparatively cost-effective manner infrastructure can be easily scaled, throughout the world if necessary.

By using scalable Docker containers, a cloud administrator can react quickly to additional demand, and through just a few simple commands can start up the number of container instances which were started simultaneously, and reduce them again when necessary. This process can even be automated, by using container management systems like Kubernetes.

In order to use scaling efficiently, the related responsibilities must be clearly defined between application development and administration, with the use of containers being a must, and development’s responsibility being to provision scalable applications.

Making Use of the Potential Provided by the Cloud

Cloud services mean companies have access to powerful, scalable infrastructure tools, which if used selectively and in combination with good cloud management will yield all sorts of potential – and not just for large companies.

Any business looking to procure cloud resources must consider their vastly different technical and organizational conditions as compared to traditional IT systems. Spirit in Projects specializes in developing cloud concepts and technical documents for procurement processes and invitations to tender. We bring in our technical expertise and work with our clients to develop viable, sustainable concepts, prepare the necessary documentation and provide support in the procurement process. 

Learn more about our trainings for innovation technologies:

“Why do we still need requirements? We’re agile!” Have you ever heard something like that? In these times of rapid innovation, just the term requirements engineering sounds pretty laborious. Nevertheless, just in view of the radical transformation of companies and business models, requirements engineering is playing a central role in managing digital transformation. However, making this possible also requires a transformation in the methods applied. As a result, in this blog article we present you with the latest trends in requirements engineering.

All too often innovation pressure, whether real or imagined (“We need to innovate!”), results in projects which get bogged down before they’re halfway done and result in horrendous costs. Why does this happen? Because the requirements gathered aren’t specific or accurate enough. This is because, as has been long accepted in the field of IT, requirements engineering is one of the most important factors determining the success of a project. As a result, many organizations have made great efforts to ensure that their requirements are correct and that they flow into their projects in a well-coordinated manner and at the right time. And in addition to conventional methods, those organizations are also relying more and more on agile processes.

The Challenge of Digital Transformation

So where does the challenge lie? In spite of sound methodological principles, projects which focus heavily on digitally transforming large companies or organizations often feel that conventional requirements engineering methods are inadequate. Those methods are sometimes seen as not being practical, and are also often considered to be too slow and excessive. Agility is apparently not always an adequate solution here either, since agile requirements engineering methods are sometimes considered to be relevant only to development, or they’re seen as too superficial and not suitable for complex tasks. In a nutshell, established requirements engineering tools fall short when it comes to managing digital change.

“These days, a requirements engineer is faced with great changes – approaches in this field have undergone fundamental change, and in some cases have even turned completely upside down.”

Karl Schott, CEO Spirit in Projects

Trend: The Moving Target

No one who works in the field of requirements engineering for an organization committed to digital change will be able to implement projects as they did previously and still be successful. The reason for this is that role of requirements engineer has fundamentally changed:

“More and more, requirements engineers are finding themselves back in digital transformation projects, and although those projects are driven by a vision and strategic goals, neither the path which needs to be taken, nor the actual benefits of the project nor the strategic technology for implementation actually exist, and need to be first worked out over the course of the project.”

Karl Schott, CEO Spirit in Projects

This is reflected in the problems of the industry, and in the current discussion going on in research surrounding the subject of ubiquitous requirements engineering. When it comes to innovation processes, the theme of requirements analysis forms a framework which surrounds the entire project.

Aspects of Ubiquitous Requirements Engineering

The term ubiquitous refers to the fact that requirements engineering is omnipresent in innovation projects. This results in a number of problems and changes which in our opinion account for the current trends in requirements engineering:

• Open ended: Analysis projects for establishing technical ecosystems must be implemented without clear end criteria.

• Holistic approach: A holistic approach will move into focus if the solution affects your environment so strongly in terms of technology and organization that clear boundaries cannot be established for the analysis.

• Borderless systems: Systems cross borders in cases where the solution is being developed and used across regions or globally and participants are difficult to manage in terms of location and/or time.

• Everyone: Many voices will be included in the conversation when the digital transformation results in the inclusion of an increasing number of stakeholders who are unable to provide expertise in the development of solution ideas.

• Crowd: When it can no longer be determined whether users are key stakeholders or if it’s not even clear whether they’re actual people, the elicitation of requirements must be performed automatically.

• Outside the comfort zone: When the problem to be solved can no longer be analyzed using an organization’s own know-how and skills, but solving the problem instead requires collaboration which crosses different domains, organizations and/or companies – that’s “being outside the zone of comfort”.

An important trend is also how the role of requirements engineering has changed for companies themselves – it no longer concerns “just” eliciting requirements, but instead bringing in possible technologies and solution approaches at a very early stage. The trend is moving towards requirements engineering providing even more:

• Strategic consulting: This is because corporate strategies are relying more and more on the use of technologies to find and implement solutions.

• Business enabler: In cases where the possibility of using technologies determines market success.

• Orientation toward disruptive technologies: In cases where new technologies are being brought in to make it possible for a company’s new requirements to exist in the first place.

These trends point to a development we refer to as “new requirements engineering”. Our website contains detailed articles on our related practical experience we’ve gained from actual projects; incidentally you can also read more here about our consulting approach in the area of requirements management.

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