Agile & UX: Can they be married?

Kaushik Ghoshhttp://experienceisking.com [kaushik.t.ghosh@gmail.com]

UX process as a Plug-in to Water fall Model

Feature IdeaImpact Assessment (Input)

Source & Justification

Identify user groupsIdentify user Driven ProcessesGuidelinesHigh Level Specs

Task Analysis & AssumptionsFunctional Requirement DraftsMock ups / WF

Variations

Initial coverage

Live coverage

New Feature

Existing feature

Contextual Task AnalysisBreakdown Use Cases

Analysis & Validation

Iteration

Use Cases Diagrams

Detailed Use Cases

Include all in PRD

OPS Involvement and validation

Impact Assessment (Output)

Visual Design Input

Deliverable to Dev/Engg

What are the shortcomings

• Loss of communication– Often process data or user input does not get translated into the build– Large chunky PRDs are rarely followed, defeating purpose of detailed

documentation• Loss of coordination

– Design inputs are so far ahead of development that the co-ordination is lost– Often the decision does not flow from product management to

Development, rather local sporadic iterations within individual teams lead to fragmented versions

• Time & effort management issues– Bugs and other testing issues take up too much time before the next cycle

begins– Target for a stable build always gets postponed– No effective allocation of time for scheduling User Testing for the current

release– UAT bench is always under too much pressure to handle issues at hand

and starting on new components– Change requests are difficult to accommodate

Comparison of Agile and UXD

• Agile proponents promote– Short development cycles (Internet

applications)– More active customer involvement– Smaller ‘feature set’ driven development– concurrent and modular Analysis,

Observation, Development, Testing– More manageability and traceability

• Agile methods are considered – Lightweight– People-based rather than Plan-based

• UXD practitioners promote– Strong focus on the user & work flow– Constant iteration with feedback on design– Progression from High level to detail level– Consideration of experience from a holistic

approach• UXD methods are considered

– Precursor to the development process– Goal and activity oriented

Divergent: [breaks down the process into small

components]

Convergent: [integrates small components into

one unified experience]

Benefits of the marriage

• Smaller ‘feature set’ driven development– Large components will be broken down early to manageable sizes– Analysis, Observation, Development, Testing will be concurrent and

modular • More manageability and traceability

– Pending issues will not pile up as ‘to be done’, rather they will be scoped in the subsequent quick cycles

– Close interaction between the team members ensure immediate attention to issues & concerns

– Monitoring progress will be based on the Sprints rather than man-weeks or man-months

Concerns about the marriage

– The cycles in Agile process tend to get smaller and hence there may be logistical issues for User Task Analysis which are usually done for a combination of feature sets

– Testing on the current build will need to be accommodated within the subsequent cycle

– Managing roadmap and prioritization needs to start well in advance– Management mandates and their impacts would have to be accommodated

in the cycles– Technical platforms, tools and frameworks will have to be taken care of

before the process is launched

What is then the ‘Key’?

– Integrate UX as a part of the Agile cycles– User stories are developed straight from personas and scenario diagrams, which will

be iterated in the following sprints– But it is not wise to use them if one did not have access to users and proxy users in

later sprints as they do require to be fleshed out in more detail during the development sprints

– During ‘sprint 0’ the user stories are usually quite high level and can be broken down to the required level of detail during the development sprints. A story will take the form of [- As a <user type> I want <some feature> So that <reason for the feature>.. Index cards can be used and the user (or user advocate / proxy user) is usually encouraged to write the stories themselves under facilitation

– Change Requests are taken up in parallel with the current sprint form the earlier ones– The UXD team members should act as user representatives armed with the persona

and actual feedback findings– Simplicity: the art of maximizing the amount of work not done (approaching the Δ) is

essential– The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams

Proposed Agile UX Process

Maintain Road Map

Prioritize & Pick

Write high level specificationFunctional Requirement

Recommendation UCs, WFs, Logic

PRD

Scrum ScrumScrum

BA UG

PM Team

BA + PO

BA + PO + UG

BA + PO + UG + SM

BA + UG

Diverse Team

B/D into workflow user processes

User testing

Wireframe flow

Observation & task analysis

Identify similar components, optimize, prioritize features or

processLogic & system oriented component

Identify user groups/roles

W -2

W -1

W 0

W 1

W 2

W 3

W 4

Cycle 0 UAT,QA Consolidation

SCRUM Cycle 1

Cycle 1 UAT,QA Consolidation

SCRUM Cycle 2

W:

Wee

k #

UA

T:

Use

r A

ccep

tan

ce T

est

PR

D:

Pro

du

ct R

equ

irem

ent

Def

init

ion

SC

RU

M:

Sm

alle

st u

nit

in A

gile

Proposed Agile UX Process TimelineW -2 W -1 W 0 W 1 W 2 W 3 W 4 W 5 W 6

Scrum Scrum

Cycle 1 Cycle 2

ENG

QA UAT

UG

PM

BA

BackllogsIssues

Training & communication

Contribution to next Scrum of Cycle 2

MGMTCheck point at logical end of

the features/components

Task analysisUser testing

IterationWireframe

PRD ConsolidationAll groups

ENG + QA/UAT + UG + BA + PM

Sub features + Backlogs + Issues

BA + PO + UGW 0 – W 1

RD MP Prioritization

Issues & Concern

PM + SMW -2 – W0

UGW 1 – W 2

Roles:

SM: Senior ManagementPM: Product ManagementBA: Business AnalystUG: Usability GroupQA/UAT: FR TesterENG: Development

Simultaneous testing