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Mutual Development: A Case Study in Customer-Initiated Software Product Development

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End-User Development (IS-EUD 2009)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 5435))

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Abstract

The paper is a case study of customer-initiated software product development. We have observed and participated in system development activities in a commercial software house (company) over a period of two years. The company produces project-planning tools for the oil and gas industry, and relies on interaction with customers for further development of its products. Our main research question is how customers and professional developers engage in mutual development mediated by shared software tools (products and support systems). We have used interviews with developers and customers as our main source of data, and identified the activities (from use to development) where customers have contributed to development. We analyze our findings in terms of co-configuration, meta-design and modding in order to name and compare the various stages of development (adaptation, generalization, improvement request, specialization, and tailoring).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. InterMedia, University of Oslo, Blindern, P.O. Box 1161, N-0318, Oslo, Norway

    Renate Andersen & Anders I. Mørch

Authors
  1. Renate Andersen
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  2. Anders I. Mørch
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Siegen, Hölderlinstr. 3, 57068, Siegen, Germany

    Volkmar Pipek

  2. College of Information Sciences and Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA

    Mary Beth Rosson

  3. Philips Research Europe, High Tech campus 34 - WB - 5.27, 5656 AE, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Boris de Ruyter

  4. Faculty of Information System and New Media, University of Siegen, Hölderlinstr. 3, 57068, Siegen, Germany

    Volker Wulf

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Andersen, R., Mørch, A.I. (2009). Mutual Development: A Case Study in Customer-Initiated Software Product Development. In: Pipek, V., Rosson, M.B., de Ruyter, B., Wulf, V. (eds) End-User Development. IS-EUD 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 5435. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00427-8_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00427-8_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-00425-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-00427-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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