A Case Study of Usability Design in Ocean for Petrel Development at Schlumberger Information Solutions.

Abstract

AbstractSchlumberger is a service oilfield provider company which also develops their own software for their clients. They are in the special situation where they have developers who develop an API, which is then used to make plug - ins into their software, Petrel. So the challenges I have encountered and researched are about usability, and how the developers for the API, develop for usability, not only the API usability, but also the usability of the plug in users. The developers have work that are characterized by complexity and that is dynamic, so that they have to evolve rapidly to keep up with the demand. This research is going to study the case within Schlumberger Information Solutions and come up with some ideas to ease the process to help find solutions to help develop for better usability. Some of my findings are that Scrum actually can help with the usability if implemented correctly. Because of Scrum, the communication within the Ocean team has increased. Another way to make the API more usable is to add more example code so the API becomes self ? explanatory. Increased user input from the end user is another way to add to the usability for the Petrel application, and testing with users earlier on in the process not only when the product is finished.After I present my findings, I discuss the results, the validity of them, and also the reasons to why Schlumberger doesn?t do it like that today.