UsersAward - User-driven software certification

Yngve Sundblad, yngve@nada.kth.se
Åke Walldius, aakew@nada.kth.se

Partners
Bengt Sandblad, Uppsala University
Lars Bengtsson, Gävle University College
Torbjörn Illar, Luleå Technical University
Ove Ivarsen, LO/UsersAward
Torbjörn Lind, UsersAward
Jenny Johansson, UsersAward
Dan Sjögren, VINNOVA

The network UsersAward
Since 1998, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO), in collaboration with the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees (TCO) and CID, and with support from VINNOVA , heads the project UsersAward, a network in which trade union and consumer organisations cooperate with researchers, private and public enterprises and software suppliers. The network has the following goals:
- to develop new forms for cooperation between end-users, procurers and suppliers of Enterprise Resource Planning software,
- to develop new guidelines and recommendations for how such software should be designed and implemented,
- to certify Enterprise Resource Planning software according to the method, User-driven software certification, that has been developed within the project,
- to report and inform about new knowledge and new experiences gained from the project.

Background - the ITQ-project 1998-2002
The network UsersAward was created between 1998 and 2002 through a broad research and development project initiated by the LO. The IT Quality project, or ITQ for short, was the research part of that project. ITQ comprised some ten pilot projects as well as participation in project and user panels, user conferences and the yearly competition The User's IT Prize, founded in 2000 by the LO. All these activities laid the ground for User Certified, the method for quality assurance which was the main task for the ITQ project to develop and which was implemented in two software certifications in 2002, (TimeCare and Monitor).
In January of 2003, the network UsersAward entered a new phase when the LO, the TCO and VINNOVA decided to establish UsersAward AB as a development company, owned by the LO. This meant that the involvement from CID and the other universities engaged also entered a new phase, concentrated on the mission to participate in, document and further develop certifications according to the User Certified method. The following presentation details the new project, User-driven software certification. Read more about the ITQ project, where the ground was laid for this project, here </ao.ua.itq.html>.

User-driven software certification

Aim
The aim of the project is to take part in, to document, and to further develop certifications according to User Certified 2002, the method which was developed within the ITQ project and which is now managed by UsersAward AB.

Approach
A Research board has been created, through which the researchers (see Partners, above), together with the developers in UsersAward AB, will follow the certification process as a whole, discuss the need for new research efforts, and assist in initiation, search for financing, and performance of such efforts. Specifically, the board shall discuss different forms for evaluating the impact of the certification program on the involved parties as well as on society as a whole.
The board will arrange yearly research seminar where the gained experiences are reported. Also, the board will take active part in arranging international research seminars and contribute to the reports from UsersAward in publications and at conferences, national as well as international .

The certification process
The implementation of the certification is managed by the development company UsersAward AB, but the participation of the researchers is required for evaluating the certification data, for developing new quality criteria, and for implementing the method on new kinds of IT tools and application domains. These experiences generate new, systematic knowledge about certification which is of great scientific interest.
Since the aim of UsersAward is to form an international network, with an internationally coordinated certification program, one of the most urgent research tasks is to contribute with surveys of the trends and developments in the area, specifically within Europe. During 2002 and 2003 there has already been joint UsersAward events arranged together with representatives from the German trade union movement and with research groups which have an interest in quality assurance from the perspective of end-users.

Pilot projects
The main research efforts of the ITQ project were carried out within the framework of pilot project, short and well focused investigations carried out together with end-users and software suppliers to highlight certain criteria in the certification process. Also in the new phase, researchers will contribute by assisting in the initiation, the search for financing, and the performance of such focused pilot projects. Among the areas that need more careful inspection are the following: Use value indicators, Learning and health indicators for daily communication, and Simulation for daily planning.

New versions of the certificate User Certified
The set of criteria and the procedure that specify User Certified 2002 is constantly tested and evaluated through new software certifications, through pilot projects and through other user activities carried out in the network. An important task for the research is to get an upgraded version of User Certified discussed and carefully analysed together with international software suppliers and representatives from international user groups and research groups. Beyond the consolidation of the method, i.e. the systematic and detailed documentation of User Certified 2002, the most important and concrete challenge for the project is to contribute to an internationally coordinated upgraded version of User Certified, an effort that has to be fulfilled during the years 2003-2007, which is the duration of the project in its current form.

Uppdaterade 2004-03-11