WORKPLACE STUDIES WITH SOFTWARE TEAMS
Integrating Agile development
with User Experience design
Jennifer [email protected]
Helen Sharp, Hugh Robinson
• Integrating Agile development with UX design
Outline
• Integrating Agile development with UX design
• Problem?
Outline
• Integrating Agile development with UX design
• Problem?• Workplace studies
Outline
• Integrating Agile development with UX design
• Problem?• Workplace studies• Achieving integration
Outline
• Integrating Agile development with UX design
• Problem?• Workplace studies• Achieving integration• Implications
Outline
IntroAgile development + UX design
XP Scrum FDD ASD
Agile development
• interaction design [Patton 2002a] • usage centered design [Patton 2002b]• discount usability engineering [Kane 2003]• rapid contextual design [Beyer et al. 2004]• user experience design [Hodgetts 2005]• user centered design [Miller 2005]• scenario-based design [Lee and McCrickard
2007]• goal-directed design [Cho 2009]
*Design
ISO CD 9241-210
“all aspects of the user’s experience when interacting with the product, service, environment or facility.”
User Experience (UX) Design
indicative of the collection of methods, tools, techniques, etc. for involving and maintaining focus on the end user in software development
- understand users- design- evaluate
User Experience (UX) Design
indicative of the collection of methods, tools, techniques, etc. for involving and maintaining focus on the end user in software development
- understand users- design- evaluate
User Experience (UX) Design
WORK
CombinationAgile development + UX design
Debates
• The place of UX design in Agile development• When what happens
Debates
• The place of UX design in Agile development• When what happens
- Up front
- In the Agile iterations
Debates
• The place of UX design in Agile development• When what happens
- Up front BDUF
- In the Agile iterations
Debates
• The place of UX design in Agile development• When what happens
- Up front BDUF
- In the Agile iterations
BAD
Debates
• The place of UX design in Agile development• When what happens
- Up front BDUF
- In the Agile iterations too short
BAD
Debates
• The place of UX design in Agile development• When what happens
- Up front BDUF
- In the Agile iterations too short
BAD
BAD
comparisons of values and principles process
e.g. both Agile and UX are iterative
and both focus on the customer/end user
Simplistic view
“The two-track organization is what we aimed for, although in reality it was a little more complex. Some designs needed longer than a single cycle to complete. For example, one particularly troublesome feature took us over 5 cycles before the design passed all of its goals.”
Lynn Miller, "Case Study of Customer Input For a Successful Product," Agile Development Conference, pp. 225-234, Agile Development Conference (ADC'05), 2005.
Simplistic view
Workplace studiesPhD thesis
How are Agile development and UX design combined?
• How is integration accomplished on a day-to-day basis?
• Singer et al. “… little is known about how software engineers perform their work. In order to improve software engineering tools and practice, it is therefore essential to conduct field studies, i.e., to study real practitioners as they solve real problems.”
Janice Singer, Susan E. Sim, and Timothy C. Lethbridge (2008) Software Engineering Data Collection for Field Studies. Guide to Advanced Empirical Software Engineering. Forrest Shull, Janice Singer, Dag I.K. Sjøberg Editors. Pages 9—34, ISBN-13: 978-1-84800-043-8.
How are Agile development and UX design combined?
• How is integration accomplished on a day-to-day basis?
• Only 4 of 23 empirical studies included observations of practice in work settings
How are Agile development and UX design combined?
• How is integration accomplished on a day-to-day basis?
• Only 4 of 23 empirical studies included observations of practice in work settings
Study practitioners in the workplace
Workplace studies
Workplace studies
Team1 Team2 Team3 Team4
project web web mobile mobile
size 16 4 7 6
Agile method Scrum Scrum Scrum Scrum
UX role yes yes yes no
organisation >1000 50 <50
Same same but different
all three organisations• successful at delivering software• highly valued UX design• used Scrum
different experiences of practice
Same same but different
all three organisations• successful at delivering software• highly valued UX design• used Scrum
different experiences of practicethe best way to create software
How are Agile development and UX design combined?
• Integration• On-going – negotiated, day-to-day,
individuals• Achieved – variety of conditions:
1. Developers and designers were kept apart2. Developers and designers were working
closely together3. Developer designers were trialling working
closely together
Integration as…
• Expectations about acceptable behaviour
• Mutual awareness• Negotiating progress• Engaging with each other
Integration as…
• Expectations about acceptable behaviour
• Mutual awareness• Negotiating progress• Engaging with each other
Expectations about acceptable behaviour
• expectations about how the other group behaves
• what developers expect-- due to Scrum commitments
• what UX designers expect-- due to UX design commitments
Expectations about acceptable behaviour
“What kind of feedbackdo you want to give?”
“Could we have ameeting to give yousome feedback?”
developers: expectedto provide feedback as issues arose
Apart
designers: expectedto hand over designsand move onto thenext project
developers: expecteddesigners to providetimely redesigns
designers: not expecting on-going conversations
Expectations about acceptable behaviour
“Either wouldbe fine.”
“Which would beeasier to
implement?”
Together
designers: expected developer to answer their questions
designers: expected that the developer could answer their questions
designers: expecteddeveloper to have useful input
developer: expectedthat the designerswould havequestions
Integration as…
• Expectations about acceptable behaviour
• Mutual awareness• Negotiating progress• Engaging with each other
Mutual awareness
• UX designers being aware of what constitutes work for Agile developers
• Agile developers being aware of what constitutes work for UX designers
• levels vary between the teams
“We're moving deskstoday.”
“Are the designsready?”
rigid role boundaries
Agile developers andUX designers on separate teams
Agile developers and UX designers seated on different floors
Apart
tense
Mutual awareness
bonded team
fluid role boundaries
relaxed
Together
Mutual awareness
on-going conversations
Integration as…
• Expectations about acceptable behaviour
• Mutual awareness• Negotiating progress• Engaging with each other
Negotiating progress
• Maintaining workflow under uncertainty• client expectations? (market,
dependencies on other projects)• requirements
• decision-makers are not always available
• teams make progress in spite of this – they HAVE to
Negotiating progress
“What kind of feedbackdo you want to give?”
“Could we have ameeting to give yousome feedback?”
Apart
phased
formal
a set of activities
constrained
reluctant
Negotiating progress
“I think they wantedmore pop.”
“What do youremember from
the client meeting?”
informal
on-the-fly
agreed together
Together
Integration as…
• Expectations about acceptable behaviour
• Mutual awareness• Negotiating progress• Engaging with each other
Engaging with each other
• developers and designers do 2 types of work:
• own• together
• input• decision-making• expertise
switch
Engaging with each other
“What kind of feedbackdo you want to give?”
“Could we have ameeting to give yousome feedback?”
Apart
explicitrequire design expertise to proceeddesigners leading,
developers releasing software developers
approaching designers
Engaging with each other
implicitstatus updates
solution is negotiated
“I think they wantedmore pop.”
“What do youremember from
the client meeting?”
Together
clarifications
Achieving integration
“We're moving deskstoday.”
“Are the designsready?”
Apart
Systematic, separatist approach• walking around, finding• meetings, logistics• communicating via documents, up to date
Together
Achieving integration
Subtle, on-going effort• shared awareness of design values and
technical constraints• shared decision-making
Findings
• Not just about process• Teams are not isolated• Not just about seating the developers
with designers (i.e. colocation)• Integration is shaped by organisational
and team-level factors views on how best to create software
Implications
views on how best to create software• Implications
• for processes and tools• team arrangements
Implications: processes and tools
• Supporting and maintaining• expectations about acceptable
behaviour• mutual awareness• negotiating progress• engaging with each other
Implications: team arrangements
• Not about co-location working closely together achieved in different ways
1. Valuing input from different roles2. Enabling roles to work together3. Understanding and sharing
responsibilities
thank you