Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best role for UX in Agile/ Scrum - Customer vs. Implementer?
I'm wishing this were in Denver Colorado! This is exactly what I've been looking for. Mike Caskey On Feb 3, 2010, at 2:10 PM, Michael Long wrote: > On January 30th, 2010 at the Cooper offices in San Francisco, CA, > practitioners of agile software development and user experience > design met to see if common ground could be found. > > http://emergentdomain.com/reports/agile-ux-retreat/ > > > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > Posted from the new ixda.org > http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48601 > > > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org > Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best role for UX in Agile/ Scrum - Customer vs. Implementer?
On January 30th, 2010 at the Cooper offices in San Francisco, CA, practitioners of agile software development and user experience design met to see if common ground could be found. http://emergentdomain.com/reports/agile-ux-retreat/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48601 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best role for UX in Agile/ Scrum - Customer vs. Implementer?
I stand corrected, UX'ers should be Pigs! and definitely should talk! The main point I would take out of any of this discussion, is that the methodology is a framework to help a team communicate and create in a timely and effective manner. It should not become a dogmatic entity unto itself, (it often becomes obvious when a process has hit it's limitations and/or is being abused). There's not a long track record to Agile processes, so IMHO Agile/Scrum, it's best to keep it flexible and adapt the process for what works for you. Rich On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 1:20 AM, Charles Hannon wrote: > See the recent thread by Dave on this talk by Cooper: > > http://www.cooper.com/journal/2010/01/an_insurgency_of_quality.html > > Cooper specifically advocates that a "senior interaction designer" > take on the role of product owner. And also the role of pig, not > chicken--Cooper's summary of that metaphor is very different from > Rich Rogan's above. > > > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > Posted from the new ixda.org > http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48601 > > > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org > Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help > -- Joseph Rich Rogan President UX/UI Inc. http://www.jrrogan.com Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best role for UX in Agile/ Scrum - Customer vs. Implementer?
My organization is in the middle of a shift towards agile; some projects are there others have not fully made the jump yet. I would agree with others that the best role for a UX person is not the product owner, but a dedicated role on the team. POs really have to have many faces: they're accountable to customers for understanding their wants and needs, to upper management for justifying the existence of a product and making sure that there is enough time and money to build it properly, and finally to the development team for making final decisions on any number of features, scope, etc. I would think that it would be very difficult for a UX person to handle all of these responsibilities (though there is some overlap with what we do) as well as all the detailed work of discovery, design and validation. That being said, I think it is really important for the PO to rely heavily on the UX person/team in informing some of her decisions; these two roles need to be tightly coupled together so as to best reconcile multiple incoming streams of information pertaining to customer needs (i.e. from a marketing/business perspective, any ethnographic and usability work that has been done, etc.). I think that the product owner and the UX person need to understand the customer in different (but equally valuable) ways, but both these levels of understanding need to be taken as a whole when making decisions. One more comment about UX in agile: I've found it very difficult to participate fully in the agile process (task boards, standups, being assigned stories, etc.) as I often have many projects I'm working on at a time (as opposed to a developer's single focus for any given sprint). It can be more difficult to commit to tasks/stories in a given time frame because there are a lot of competing priorities, not just unexpected blocks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48601 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best role for UX in Agile/ Scrum - Customer vs. Implementer?
See the recent thread by Dave on this talk by Cooper: http://www.cooper.com/journal/2010/01/an_insurgency_of_quality.html Cooper specifically advocates that a "senior interaction designer" take on the role of product owner. And also the role of pig, not chicken--Cooper's summary of that metaphor is very different from Rich Rogan's above. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48601 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best role for UX in Agile/ Scrum - Customer vs. Implementer?
Quite the loaded question. A role within a Scrum project is difficult to prescribe without fully understanding the product your trying to produce. First of all, it's important to recognize the product owner. This role is very simple to identify: this is the person that sets the priority of your backlog (your user stories) and has the final word of approval. It's okay for UX to not be the product owner; in fact, in your organization, it's likely that this role might be filled by a business analyst or product manager. Similarly, Scrum Masters are a role that is very much dependent upon each team and project. A Scrum Master should be elected by the members of the team and not appointed unless every member of the team is unfamiliar with the working environment. Based on my experience, I would stay focused on your product. What will it take to produce it? Write stories capturing every aspect of what you seek to build, and then build a Scrum team or teams that organize every party needed to produce that product. If you can't get every resource you need on your Scrum team, that's okay. In fact, those additional resources are actually referred to as SMEs (subject matter experts) and are part of the Scrum organization. To summarize as much as possible, focus on proper story-writing and the creation of a backlog. When writing those stories, be sure to work with the product owner (the ultimate decider, if you will). At the same time, ensure that your Scrum team(s) have the members fully allocated to produce the product you're after. Every sprint should be about taking additional steps towards a releasable product, and every team member should be able to share what the one big goal for the day is in the daily stand-ups. Focus on work more than roles, and focus on getting your UX team aligned with the fellow stakeholders and developers that can help achieve what your after. If the project you're working on is UX born-and-raised (let's say, a project to implement a flexible width layout), then UX will find itself in the product owner position as only the UI developers on the UX team will be able to make the call on whether or not the work fits the bill. If the project you're working on is to implement a new payment system, then the product owner will likely be the business analyst or program manager that is most familiar with the requirements of that product. I hope this crash-course was helpful as it was very much a stream-of-consciousness dialogue. I'd highly recommend that you and your company consider some training in Scrum. A couple of days in a focused course and you'll be thinking about Scrum as a pathway towards better products and working environment rather than a fixed process. This is a great resource that can provide Certified Scrum Master Training as well as many helpful blogs: http://danube.com/training If there's something more specific that you're after, I'll be happy to lend some additional insight should you want it. Good luck! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48601 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best role for UX in Agile/ Scrum - Customer vs. Implementer?
I manage UX for my company. We have had some success with UX recently. Our UX team is six people. One dedicated to first-person usability testing (every two weeks), one dedicated to the care and feeding of the help system (and other written content). The rest are in services to three cross-functional development teams, providing strategy, workflows, wireframes, and design work as needed. We used to have our team members as full members of those development teams, but we found that siloing them away from each other made them ineffective. UX is a cross-functional discipline, and works best in strong collaboration. We sprint just like the development teams, but one sprint ahead (sprint zero), so we're working now on UX deliverables that the developers will need to start building next sprint. A standalone UX team, sprinting alongside the dev teams, one sprint ahead is a new configuration for us, but so far, so good. We're really seeing some signs of success. Let me know if I can offer any specific insights that might be helpful to you. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48601 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best role for UX in Agile/ Scrum - Customer vs. Implementer?
UX in Agile Scrum works best when Product Owners can use that bundle of skills to help craft backlog --- and then have that same bundle of skills get deployed on teams during sprints. If you have a good culture (which Catherine rightly points out is more important than the method), and you are lucky enough to have the breathing room, you can often accomplish this by having a Sprint - 0 that's just UX Product Owners, then start rolling the process with UX on teams. But you do need both: I have noticed that whenever UX become more product owner, they lose site of struggles teams are having (or good questions they are generating) & the teams tend to "stray." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48601 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best role for UX in Agile/ Scrum - Customer vs. Implementer?
Hi everyone, thanks for the comments so far. We had a discussion around it yesterday and our conclusion was that UX should be a specific role and not just summarized to categories that actually don't fit. I am curious to learn what your think about that approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48601 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best role for UX in Agile/ Scrum - Customer vs. Implementer?
Kostanija, for the last year or so I've operated in two roles for my employer. I work with a pair of agile/scrum teams. In general I'm UX Lead for the company, but also the Product Owner. Product Owner in this case is pretty hands-on, taking care of some activities that a scrum master would, in addition to representing the customer. Here are some pros and cons from my own experience. Pros for UX person in PO role. * UX concerns/user advocacy get attention. * Because PO is part political, UX can be represented to execs. Cons for UX person in PO role. * If there aren't other UX people in company, real UX work barely gets done because being a PO takes a whole lot of time. Ok, what I'm trying to push for is to have someone else take over the Product Owner role (and angle for this person to be UX-inclined), so I can be freed up to cultivate a healthier UX presence in the company. In part, I'll be able to do the work, advise POs on UX concerns, and mentor UX practitioners and developers on integrating user experience into the iterations. My fear is that by relinquishing the PO role, the priority for UX work will slip. I don't think that will happen, though. To help keep UX thinking active, I've declared that every Wed morning will include a usability test. Informal and largely internal, but at least to get UX and developers into the habit of doing usability work. I think this will help shift thinking and awareness across the agile teams. I'd be curious about what other UX practitioners in agile teams have to say. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48601 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best role for UX in Agile/ Scrum - Customer vs. Implementer?
Scrum is great for communication within a team, as such, definitely UX
should be a "Chicken" as much as possible, ("Chickens" talk and "Pigs" get
slaughtered or something like that right?).
Also as Design would probably be an iteration ahead of dev, and subsequently
need to focus on the "new", "Scrum Master" probably isn't the best role.
Successes with scrum I've had revolve around teams being "pragmatic" not
"dogmatic" in regards to Agile methodologies, I think this is the
overarching key that will lead to success.
Rich
--
Joseph Rich Rogan
President UX/UI Inc.
http://www.jrrogan.com
On Sun, Jan 24, 2010 at 8:16 PM, kostanija petrovic <
kostanija.petro...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> We are currently discussing what the best process role for UX within
> in Agile/Scrum would be.
>
> What is your experience? Which role would you recommend based on your
> experience and why?
>
>
>
>
> --
> Joseph Rich Rogan
> President UX/UI Inc.
> http://www.jrrogan.com
>
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] Best role for UX in Agile/ Scrum - Customer vs. Implementer?
I've found that in Agile (as in most environments), unless there is an already existing respect for the importance of UX, that one needs to be first and foremost an advocate for UX. The role is not confined to a title really. I have found the need to push CE and time spent on user analysis and testing. In Agile I've found this much easier due to the nature of the methodology. Hold workshops, present all ideas, get feedback, collaborate collaborate collaborate. Get feedback, iterate, Get more feedback. An Experience Architect is the best term I could conjure. But it involves much more than interaction design / visual design. The Agile methodology is very user centric, however, many institutions are still to practice this part. And this is where we come in. To tell them what "involving the user" is all about. Contextual Enquiry is only going to happen if you make it so. You need to be an analyst, and a bit of a Project Manager, and of course a designer. You need to drive the vision towards usability. Erm, yes, so what I'm saying is - Agile is a brilliant environment to advocate usability. However, a methodology needs to be lived and breathed by an organisation before we can actually benefit from such concepts. I suppose that I have the question: How many "Agile" organisations practice real Agile? How many butcher it? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=48601 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
