Utilizando personas para apoiar a elicitação de requisitos

Abstract

Personas is a technique that consists of a description of user profiles to understand their characteristics and needs. This technique is commonly used in the area of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and has now been introduced in the area of Software Engineering to support the activities of design and requirements elicitation. However, descriptions of personas created in the traditional way include many details that are not relevant to the design of an application. In addition, Personas are based on extensive interviews with user groups. However, the development team does not always have the time, resources, and users constantly available for these interviews. In this way, the utility of the technique is questioned, limiting its use and acceptance in the context of Software Engineering. This research aims to support the elicitation of requirements with the use of personas, from the generation of descriptions more focused on the identification of potential requirements. During the research, we conducted experimental studies for evaluating and evolving the proposal. Based on the results, we proposed the PATHY technique. The technique is based on the Empathy Map, which is a technique for describing user profiles of a product, and uses questions to guide the creation of the Persona. From the results of the experimental studies, it was possible to observe that the PATHY technique had positive acceptance by the participants, it was easy to use and efficient when compared with other Personas techniques. In addition, the analysis of the personas generated showed that the technique helps to generate potential requirements for an application and which these requirements can be used as basis for elaborating other software artifacts.