AgileUXinRTLM Gifford

8/12/2019 AgileUXinRTLM Gifford

1/21

IBM Academy of Technology

Second Agile Methods and Practices Conference

McKimmon Center at NC State UnivJune 23-25, 2008Agile@IBM

Agile UX in Rational Test LabManager (RTLM)

April Gifford

[email protected]

SWG - Rational


2/21

IBM Academy of Technology: Second Agile Methods and Practices Conference

McKimmon Center at NC State Univ

June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM2

About this presentation

Comparing and contrasting my experience as an agile UX practitioner tothat of Desiree Sy of Autodesk, as described in her article Adapting

Usability Investigations for Agile User-centered Design, 2007

Purpose

Share my experience

Work toward consumable best practices (or tips and tricks!)

Agenda

Quick overview of some high points from Sys article

Quick overview of the same points from my experience

Why were these agile UX experiences so different?

Some lessons learned


3/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM3

Adapting Usability Investigations for Agile UCD

Quick background Adaptations to waterfall UCD

Just in time design

Methods used

Design chunking

User feedback

Use of documents

Cycle planning


4/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM4


Chunking Breaking designs apart into cycle

sized pieces

Well defined design goals

Understanding of the high level

design intent

Mini designs build incrementally on

each other

Ordering dependency

Early design chunks are low level

and fundamental

No effort wasted, no unused designs


5/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM5


Feedback Mixed design chunks into single usability sessions

For example

Get information on a workflow for a design two iterations away

Contextual investigation

Usability test prototypes for current iteration Mix and match usability methodologies

Participant profiles got progressively closer to end user profiles

Developers received validated designs


6/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM6


Documents & reporting Oral storytelling via scrums,

cycle planning sessions viaplanning board

Design cards (upcomingdesigns)

Issue cards (issues, featurerequests, bugs)

Feature cards (implementationof design)

Owned by developers

Usability criteria are part ofacceptance criteria

No detailed design specs,design history instead

Team members are co-located


7/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM7


Cycle planning Cycle Zero/Cycle One

Requirements gathering

Personas, scenarios

Devs work on architecture to allow time for UX activities

Identify major workflows

Inform design decisions

Each cycle thereafter

Finalize the user story of the next iteration

Finalize features needed

Future cycles remain loosely planned

Enabled the UX team to design one cycle ahead and gather requirements

two cycles ahead until product release


8/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM8


Agile UX as illustrated in Desiree Sys article


9/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM9

Agile UX in RTLM

In my experience

me


10/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM10

Agile UX in RTLM

First, a little information and history A new technology to assist lab managers and test professionals in the

coordination and management of test lab assets.

Built on top of Jazz

Joined in late December 2007 as a UX resource working primarily with a UI

developer; supported by ASQ UX lead and ASQ MDS designer forconsistency between products, feedback on storyboards, and planning joint

UX activities

RQM, RTLM


11/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM11

Agile UX in RTLM

Chunking We did not chunk as Sy did

We chunked by feature, not by complexity

We werent progressively building a complete workflow through a feature- it

was happening all at once

So many granular, frequently changing details, easy to lose sight of the bigpicture holistic nature of the UI

Ripple effect and waste


12/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM12

Agile UX in RTLM

A typical chunk to design- one week timeframe


13/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM13

Agile UX in RTLM

Feedback Via internal customer team- storyboards

Weekly meetings with the group as time permitted

Weekly 1:1s as time permitted and as needed

Managed beta recently underway

Open beta planned for

Solicited participants in Beta and ASQ DPP, little response to RTLM

Tough to schedule and plan given a moving target and many moving parts

Reactive because we didnt know what was coming down the pike


14/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM14

Agile UX in RTLM

Documents & reporting Jazz work items

Frequent conference calls (globally distributed team)

Provided detailed design specs (blueprints) and lo-fi mockups, but no

guarantee that they will be implemented as designed

Difficult to get everyone on the same page


15/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM15

Agile UX in RTLM

Cycle planning Cycle Zero/Cycle One? We might have had them, but I dont think so

We generated requirements in the cycle planning meeting

Occurred at the end of most iterations

Stories created for individual work items, not for the cycle itself

Stories consist of a description and the associated tasks (low level) Rarely design ahead of development- maybe a week or two

Prototypes frequently became the finished product

Well clean up the UI later


16/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM16

Why were these experiences so different?

My opinion: CHANGE Packaging

Entire UI

Product scope

Team processes (build, testing, defect tracking)

Schedules

Base technology

Staff & management


17/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM17

Why so different?

B..b..bbut the Agile Manifestovalues Responding to change over

following a plan!

When does responding to change

get detrimental? Does it? Can this

even be quantified?

How can we, as UX practitioners,

manage change effectively

without losing the benefits of

following a plan?


18/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM18

Lessons learned

What Ill try to do differently next time Keep sight of the big picture and maintain a holistic UX perspective,

instead of getting so consumed by the details

Make absolutely sure we have use cases and design goals

Make the time to figure out how changes might impact any plans, my

schedule, requirements, design, etc Remember best practices and fundamentals of usable design (not design

by committee)

Learn some coding skills to improve prototype fidelity and turnover

Implement a more robust user feedback process if possible

http://agilemanifesto.org/


19/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM19

Lessons learned

What might have helped Real life resources not a bibliography

Not only what worked in a situation, but what DIDNT work in a situation (other

practitioners lessons learned)

Difficulties and get well plans

Flexible UCD suggestions for implementation in a variety of project environments

(best practices and adaptations)reading Sys article sooner!

Basically, anything that helps you hit the ground running because theres no time

to play catch up

Risk mitigation/backups

Involved external stakeholders

Clearer requirements on the whole (Why are we building this again?)

Perhaps a team blog a one stop shop for all things RTLM

http://agilemanifesto.org/

IBM A d f T h l S d A il M th d d P ti C f


20/21



June 23-25, 2008

Agile@IBM20

Questions?

IBM A d f T h l S d A il M th d d P ti C f


21/21


McKimmon Center at NC State UnivAgile@IBM21

Thanks!

To the conference organizers for having me

To you for coming

AgileUXinRTLM Gifford

Documents

Transcript of AgileUXinRTLM Gifford