Personas

[David Miller]

Gervase Markham wrote on 2/15/07 1:47 PM:
> Damien Miller wrote:
>> I disagree with labelling occasional bug reporters ("Fabio" persona) as
>> Unimportant. For our (OpenSSH's) bugzilla, these make a fair proportion
>> of bug reports, and some of our most important. I expect other Bugzilla-
>> using free software projects are similar in this regard.
> 
> We need to be very clear about the definition of "important" we are
> using. It is not "important to the software project using the Bugzilla",
>  it is "important in designing the software".
> 
> While Fabio-type people are undoubtedly important to OpenSSH or Mozilla,
> Fabio uses a very limited part of Bugzilla, and exactly what he sees can
> be customised through templates - as we do on b.m.o., as KDE do, and so
> on. Therefore, it doesn't make sense to design the rest of the software
> around his needs - because he never uses it. And it doesn't make much
> sense to design even the default bug entry screen around him, because
> the one he uses is unsuitable for our other core users, as it's too simple.
> 
> So what we do is we say "Fabio is of very limited importance in the
> design of the Bugzilla software, and we can meet his needs using the
> template system".
> 
> Do you see the distinction I am making? Is that reasonable?

I think what Damien is pointing out is that Fabio should still be
considered an important customer of the Bugzilla design, and that the
one or two pages that he's ever going to see need to include his needs
in their design, even if it is only one or two pages.

-- 
Dave Miller                                   http://www.justdave.net/
System Administrator, Mozilla Corporation      http://www.mozilla.com/
Project Leader, Bugzilla Bug Tracking System  http://www.bugzilla.org/