A Perspective on Software Consumability

Summary form only given. Reliability questions are often directed at the core values of a software product that is at the features and functions. After all, the client imagines a to-be state where the software is running and the client achieves their business goals. So reliability concerns appropriately have mapped to the question: can the client reasonably achieve those goals through this software? This line of investigation is not, however, the only critical path constraint on client success. The client has to travel a path from their as-is state in order to get to the values promised by product features and functions; this path requires successful execution of a set of meta-tasks. These meta-tasks can interfere with value attainment or even prevent it. We call the impact of these meta-tasks on a product "consumability". We will discuss this and the measurement models we have built around consumability to formally address this topic in our development activities