What are the user requirements for using an ATM? The most obvious ones are: ability to withdraw cash, ability to check account balance, ability to make deposits.
But how about others: ability to retrieve all the coins and cash in the ATM, ability to unjam the ATM if things get stuck, ability to physically move the ATM?
They are not requirements of the bank's customers, but they all valid user requirements. The user requirements depend on who the users are.
To build a successful systems, it's necessary to identify who the users of the system are. The 'who' does not mean specific persons, but categories (or types) of users. For an ATM, these can include: the paying stakeholder, bank customers, customers of other banks with whom the ATM's bank has arrangements with, bank personnel who need to manage the ATM, security personnel, network staff who need to ensure the ATM is connected, back office bank staff who need to analyse and report on data about ATM usage, and so on.
It's clear that if we miss one of the categories of users, we will be unlikely to have miraculously provided system functionality that satisfies their needs.
One challenge to identify categories of users occurs when we are building new systems that are not merely upgrade of existing systems. In this case, there are currently no existing users. The categories of users would need to be identified. Other sources, such as the concept of operations, or the operating model are sources of an initial set of users.
Does your system development process include a rigorous identification of the system users?
References:
Stevens, R. J. (1998). Systems engineering: Coping with complexity. London: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
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