What are the critical value attributes sought by software users?

Using a grounded theory approach, our study (Kakar and Kakar, 2022) identified 6 types of values derived by software users. Although the participants in the debriefing session agreed with the values sought by them in using software as well as with the items in these values, there were differences in opinion about which values were critical to them. They asked whether we could analyze the data or collect more data to objectively find out the critical values in software use. We found the request to be interesting and conducted this study to investigate. We conducted the study using the widely accepted Kano model for attribute classification. The finding show that as expected items identified under Psychological Safety (comfort value) and Quality Value were key (must-have) for software users. By finding out the critical values in software use, perhaps for the first time in literature, this study has implications for software project managers and product managers in prioritizing the valuable features they should provide in their software application or product