Mutual Development: The Software Engineering Context of End-User Development

INTRODUCTION The goal of the research reported here is to identify areas where end-user development (EUD) and professional software development meet and interact. We have observed and participated in development activities in a commercial software house (referred to as company) over a period of two years. We propose a model of the activities, which we refer to as mutual development. The model consists of the 5 sub-processes, which connects EUD and professional development. ABSTRACT The article presents and analyzes data from a case study in 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 to name and compare the various stages of development (adaptation, generalization , improvement request, specialization, and tailoring).