Identifying usability risk: A survey study

As defined in various quality models, usability is recognized as an important attribute of software quality. Failing to address usability requirements in a software product could lead to poor quality and high usability problems in software product. Research is still in progress to introduce the best methods for reducing usability problems and increase the rate of successful usable software products. Studies have shown that problems in software products can also be controlled using Software Risk Management methods, even though these problems cannot be eliminated totally. Using Software Risk Management, problems in software products are dealt before it occurs. This paper presents usability problems as a risk factor and by managing usability risk at earlier phases of the development process, successful and high usability software products can be developed. Unfortunately, currently there is little effort in identifying, analyzing and prioritizing potential usability risks at earlier phases of the development process. This paper focuses on usability risk identification as it is the first stage in usability risk management. This paper presents the results of an industry survey based on the opinion of Malaysian Public Sector involving sample size of 330 software developers and software projects managers regarding potential usability risk that could occur during Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Our finding has identified 42 potential usability risks, defined as a list for further risk analysis in future.