Using SoDIS for Target Audience

A target audience analysis is an important part of a multimedia project yet it is often poorly performed by students. This often stems from a lack of awareness of the risks associated with an incomplete or an incorrect target audience analysis. The process for target audience analysis is a similar to that for stakeholder analysis and the author felt that the use of software stakeholder impact analysis might improve the students’ performance. The SoDIS Project AuditorTM was selected as the software to use. The SoDIS Project Auditor is a decision support tool for software development projects. It was developed by Don Gotterbarn of East Tennessee State University and Simon Rogerson of DeMontford University. Although the SoDIS process consists of three phases: a feasibility phase, a requirements phase and a detailed phase, only the requirements phase was used for target audience analysis. The suitability of SoDIS as a tool for target audience analysis is investigated in this paper. The process of adapting SoDIS is described. The results of the analysis for a project whose multimedia elements have attributes that were similar to those used by students indicate that the software can be successfully used for target audience analysis.