Software needs in real workplaces¶

Practical 7.1 software-needs-in-real-workplaces-annex.pdf · PDF

Tramuntana Apps hires its 13^th person tomorrow. What must be on her laptop before 9:00? You probably answered with product names: Figma, Word, VS Code. Now imagine she is a receptionist in a hotel instead. Almost every name on your list is wrong.

That is the mistake this page fixes. Nobody needs a program. People need to get a job done. First you write down the job; the program comes last. Choosing software for a company, a school or a hotel is one of the first real tasks a technician is asked to do — and the people paying will want to see your reasons, with numbers.

From people to needs: five questions¶

These five questions are the method. Ask them before you name a single product.

A software need is one line: who must be able to do what.

Mark each need:

• Must — work stops without it.
• Should — work is better with it.

Then add the software category (office suite, hotel management...) and its purpose from the previous page: System, Application or Development.

Constraints decide before taste¶

A constraint is a limit that removes candidates before any comparison: a law, a fixed budget, the hardware you already have, the skills of the staff, a platform you are told to use.

A candidate that cannot meet a constraint is out — it never even enters the comparison. In the doctor analogy, it is the allergy: the best medicine in the world is useless if the patient is allergic to it.

Three workplaces, three sets of constraints:

Notice the hotel's other limit: it only opens seven months a year. A plan you pay for twelve months is money thrown away in winter.

The weighted selection matrix¶

You have one need and three candidates that survive the constraints. How do you choose without just saying "I like this one"?

A weighted selection matrix is a table that scores each candidate on several criteria, multiplies each score by how much that criterion matters, and adds it up.

The steps:

1. Pick four or five criteria (what matters for this need).
2. Give each criterion a weight from 1 to 5: what matters most to this workplace gets the highest.
3. Score each candidate from 1 to 5 on each criterion.
4. Total = the sum of weight × score.

Worked example. Need: the three people in admin write documents and spreadsheets, and exchange .xlsx files with an outside accountant. Candidates: LibreOffice (free software, installed on the PCs), Microsoft 365 (proprietary, subscription), Google Workspace (proprietary, SaaS in the browser). The scores are an example; you could argue for others.

LibreOffice's total, step by step: 5·3 + 4·5 + 3·1 + 2·5 + 3·5 = 15 + 20 + 3 + 10 + 15 = 63.

Now the manager says: "Editing together is vital." The weight of that row goes from 3 to 5. Recalculate: 65 · 67 · 62. Microsoft 365 now wins — and no program changed. Only the priorities did.

flowchart LR
    N["<b>Needs list</b><br>the diagnosis"] --> C["<b>Constraints</b><br>the allergies:<br>remove candidates"]
    C --> M["<b>Selection matrix</b><br>weights × scores"]
    M --> T["<b>Three-year cost</b><br>the full bill"]
    T --> R["<b>Recommendation</b><br>the prescription"]

The cost over three years¶

The licence is only one line of the bill.

cost over 3 years = price per user per month × users × 36
                  + one-off hours × hourly cost   (installation, migration, training)
                  + what you must buy for it      (hardware, support contract)

Why 36? Three years × 12 months. Example with round invented numbers (not real prices):

Free software is not free of cost — and it may still be cheaper. Somebody installs it, somebody learns it, somebody fixes it. Hours are money. The honest name for the full figure is the total cost of ownership (TCO).

Where prices come from¶

A price you cannot trace is worthless. Rules for the practical:

• Take it from the vendor's own pricing page, never from a comparison blog. Write the address and today's date next to it: prices change.
• If the vendor hides the price ("contact sales"), that is a finding. Write down where you looked.
• Prices in dollars, per year, or without VAT: keep the vendor's figure, say which it is, and convert to "per user per month" with the calculation visible.
• For a school, check the vendor's education page: some plans cost nothing for qualifying schools.

Practical 7.1: software for a real workplace¶

In groups of three, one workplace each (A, B or C). Each student writes their own practical-7.1-surname.md. The full instructions are on the Practical 7.1 sheet (the button at the top):

1. Needs list — at least 8 needs in a Markdown table. Every group of people appears, and at least one need comes from a law or another limit.
2. Three candidates for one need (not the operating system): at least one free software, at least one proprietary or SaaS, each with licence family, where it runs and a sourced price.
3. Selection matrix — four or five criteria, weights that are not all equal, totals checked by a teammate.
4. Three-year cost for each candidate, with the multiplication written out.
5. Recommendation in five lines: what you recommend, the two reasons that decided, the three-year cost, one risk, and which weight would have to change for another candidate to win.

Then you defend it in two minutes in front of "the manager", who may ask: What happens to our files if this company closes or doubles the price? Who here knows how to install and fix it?

Key takeaways¶

• Start from people and tasks, not products: a software need says who must do what, marked must or should.
• Constraints (law, budget, hardware, skills, Internet, imposed platforms) remove candidates before any comparison.
• A weighted selection matrix totals weight × score; change one weight and the winner can change.
• The total cost of ownership over three years counts licences × users × 36 plus the hours of installation, migration and training.
• Every price comes from the vendor's own page, with the address and the date.

Quick check¶

Your report will be one more file called something like practical-final.md. Next session you stop naming files "final" for ever: Git basics.