Process: Agile UX

This is the first installment of a two-part article about how intelligent UX strategies can solve certain problems that are characteristic of agile development, as well intrinsically benefit our UX design work. My starting point: a few arguments that I made in a recent UXmatters article: “(Why) Is UXD the Blocker in Your Agile UCD Environment?”

To summarize what I wrote in that article: For a variety of reasons, particularly the ever-increasing need for software development speed, agile development methods are gaining in popularity. In many ways, this is good for UX professionals because agile fits well with the philosophy of true user-centered design (UCD) and, therefore, potentially fits well with good UX design practice. For example, a great way to define the requirements for agile sprints is for the UX team to provide the development team with an initial, functional prototype for each sprint—a prototype that they’ve already subjected to stakeholder review and successful usability testing. This approach is best supported by a modern, fourth-generation prototyping tool such as Axure RP Pro, iRise, or Justinmind Prototyper.

We know that an approach that integrates UCD, user experience, and agile can work very well. However, this approach does not mitigate a fundamental problem with agile development methods. Read More

In Part 1 of this three-part series, I discussed some key remaining problems with the software-development lifecycle (SDLC) as teams now typically realize it—in particular, those problems relating to the profession of User Experience. In that article, I pointed out how the analysis of problems generally leads to our learning the lessons on which we ultimately base our solutions.

Now, in Part 2, I’ll explore the key lessons that I’ve learned through the efforts of my company Ax-Stream to improve the SDLC, then set out the basis of the proposed solutions that I’ll present in Part 3.

In discussing how to improve the SDLC, I’ll employ the perennial comparison between large software-engineering projects and civil-engineering projects. People often draw this comparison because both types of projects are typically novel, complex, expensive, time consuming, critically important, and involve significant risk. However, unlike software-engineering projects, civil-engineering projects usually tend to proceed as expected and come in roughly on time and on budget. Read More

This is Part 1 of a three-part series in which I’ll ultimately present some radical thinking about how we could improve the software-development lifecycle (SDLC) and the key role that UX professionals can play in achieving this improvement.

Those of you who are familiar with my other UXmatters articles—such as “Are You Still Using Earlier-Generation Prototyping Tools?”—are aware that I’ve given a great deal of thought to making the UX function more effective and efficient. If you’re familiar with some of my other articles—such as “Agile Problems, UX Solutions, Part 1: The Big Picture and Prototyping”—you’ll also understand that I’ve given even more thought to making the entire SDLC more effective and efficient, and the key role that User Experience plays in this important goal. Read More