Users, developers and dilemmas

This paper presents the results of an ethnography of a small evolutionary software development project in a British oil company, focusing on the relationship between users and software developers. The discussion starts by looking at how activities come to be defined as either “user” or “developer” jobs. At the company studied there was considerable conflict over the user development of Lotus Notes databases. This example illustrates how it is that the taken for granted roles of “software user” and “software developer” are constructed. Leading from this, the role of users in design meetings in discussed, in particular how it is that a notion of “the user” is formed in design discussions, and then used as a resource for making design decisions. This is part of a bigger tension during design of having to reduce the design space, while maintaining agreement between those involved in the design process. These results are used to illustrate a more general discussion of how the ethnography of software development may help software development research and pedagogy.