STEPS to Software Development with Users

The paper reports on the methodical approach STEPS, developed at the Technical University of Berlin and tried successfully in participative software development with users. STEPS views software development in its connection to work design. It gives guidance to developers and users for carrying out their cooperation, establishing quality criteria pertaining to software in use and putting them into practice in system design. It embodies an evolutionary approach, portraying system development in cycles of version production, application and revision. It supports mutual learning by developers and users by carefully establishing and coordinating processes of cooperation, by using prototyping for experiments and by adapting methods and tools to the needs of cooperation and incremental work.

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