The Psychology of Application Development

There are three types of people involved in the process of developing commercial and internal software applications: users, developers, and managers. Each group has its own set of preferences, beliefs, experiences, and motivations. These psychological characteristics can, and often do, work at cross purposes. In fact, in my experience, these conflicts are the main cause of development failures.

The technical problems encountered during the development process are minor compared to these psychological conflicts. At the least, these conflicts cause delay; at worst, they result in a commercial application that no one really wants to buy, or internal applications that users rebel against.

Understanding how each group thinks can help the development team proactively manage their way through the development process, and avoid unpleasant consequences.

The user’s psychology

Let’s start with the user’s psychology. Joe User has a straightforward goal: he just wants his problem solved. He wants to be able to do something in a way that makes sense to him, that “works the way I expect it to.” He wants his next move to be obvious. This is especially true now in the age of cloud-based and mobile applications. Joe also decides which application he is going to stick with by testing it. His buying process includes signing up and trying to work with the application. If the application misses the mark, Joe will keep looking. Remember the good old days when you could sell your enterprise application to the IT department, and they didn’t care what their users thought? Not any more.

The only way to satisfy this impatient, fussy buyer is to know what that buyer really wants. It’s a scientific process that must be undertaken at two stages: at the mockup stage, and at the pre-release stage. Any investigation done at the mockup stage will avoid costly rework after the code is written (the most costly time to make major changes).

The developer's psychology

The best developers are problem solvers first, and technologists second. They derive their greatest satisfaction from finding the most efficient way to present just the right choices, at the right time, as the user is running the application development  through its paces. This can’t happen if the developer is more motivated by the “cool” technology, or by engaging in technical one-upmanship.

The manager’s psychology

Managers are motivated primarily by two factors: the fear of failure and/or embarrassment, and the desire to produce an application that is successful. Managers create successful applications by insisting on serious and methodical user testing, by carefully analyzing the functions that must be included, and by making sure the team focuses on the most efficient way for the user to accomplish his goals.

It is up to the manager to reconcile tension caused by the difference between the user’s perspective and the developer’s perspective. In all phases of development, developers need to be reminded of the importance of the user’s goals and expectations.