Title: Integrating UX into Agile Development
Context: You’re not Agile as long as the user experience guys are on the outside looking in.
Synopsis: Of the numerous benefits of adopting an Agile development approach to any project, none is more important – or beneficial – than the speed gained in moving from idea to working product without the usual trappings of less elastic methods. This has several ramifications for user experience practitioners who may be used to a healthy lead time where all of the design and documentation processes occurred up front, almost in isolation from the rest of the team. Not gonna happen in Agile. If you expect Agile to work you need to integrate into the overall product team as an equal partner. Adversarial relationships are cast aside by necessity. Decisions must be reached quickly. In general, you should be moving forward as a team too fast to let the traditional inter-discipline rivalries slow you down. This requires mutual respect, collaboration, negotiation skills and the ability to reach consensus without taking final decisions personally. Agile is not only about flexibility (although it is about that too), but it’s also about equality and civility. Well, a guy can dream can’t he?
Best Bit: “…the key to a UX professional’s successful integration with an agile team is to focus on the individuals and interactions—not the process.”
via uxmatters.com
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