The Impact of Change in Software on Satisfaction: Evaluation Using Critical Incident Technique (CIT)

This paper describes an exploratory study that analyzes the impact of change in software on users by utilizing the Critical Incident Technique (CIT). A total of 102 critical incidents were collected from the survey. 77 participants reported both satisfactory and unsatisfactory experiences; 22 reported only satisfactory experiences; and 3 reported only unsatisfactory experiences. Analysis of satisfactory or unsatisfactory experiences revealed several factors such as expectations of users and mismatch in the behavior between the actual and anticipated system by the users, which can be attributed to automation surprise. The important findings of this study are the agglomeration of user feedback such as, avoiding the changes themselves in the first place, focusing on the factors of change viz. amount of change, speed of change, and finally, to provide better help support, which can be used in the design process when there is a change in software.