Successful User Experience in an Agile Enterprise Environment

Achieving UCD within Agile Melissa Federoff Usability Team Manager A success story from salesforce.com

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Goals of this Talk Overview our User Experience team’s transition to Agile Offer hints at strategies for success

Simple Facts UX at salesforce.com

salesforce.com: An easy place to get inspired

Salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company

Software as a service model (we host the infrastructure and data)

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application & platform

59,300 customers | 1.5 million subscribers | 3,600 full-time employees

UX at salesforce.com: Where creativity & collaboration rule

An ever growing team:

Design: Visual Designers, Interaction Designers

Research: Usability Analysts, User Researchers

Simple Facts Moving to Agile

Why the move to Agile? 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 Features Delivered per Team Days between Major Releases Features Delivered per Team

Key differences with Agile FACE TO FACE check-ins daily  increases visibility TEAM DRIVEN decisions  increases accountability TIME BOXED development  increases predictability INCREMENTAL releases  manageability

6 months later… Survey Question % of all Technology that agreed % of UX that agreed Is agile making your team more effective? 80 30 Agile will maintain or improve the quality of our products. 78 42 Since the rollout of agile, I am having a good time. 52 23

Key Problems Assigned to too many teams (too many meetings!) Timelines too tight Difficult to design complex enterprise features in segments

18 months later… Survey Question % agree March 2007 % agree March 2008 Is agile making your team more effective? 30 73 Agile will maintain or improve the quality of our products. 42 86 Since the rollout of agile, I am having a good time. 23 86

Simple Facts Transitioning to Success

Key Problem #1 Assigned to too many teams (too many meetings!) Key Solution #1 Change resource allocation

Shared Resources How many scrum teams do you belong to? 1 team, 15% 2 teams, 15% 3 teams, 15% 4 teams, 38% 5 or more teams, 15%

Office Hours Predetermined time and location where scrum teams without designers can stop by for advice

Key Problem #2 Hard to design complex features in segments Key Solution #2 Parallel design & development

Parallel Design Design ahead while developers are working on back end features image from Agile case study by L. Miller, 2005

Key Problem #3 Difficult to get feedback to feature teams in time Key Solution #3 Maximize research efficiency

Rapid Iterative Testing & Evaluation (RITE) image from RITE case study by M. Medlock, 2002

Simple Facts 3 Years Later… Are we done?

Continued Evolution Improving communication and clarity of results Assessing Utility early, before Usability Bringing users into Sprint Reviews

Simple Facts Conclusion

Key Takeaways UX can be incorporated into Agile successfully Constant adaptation and flexibility are required There are lots of success stories to learn from!

Simple Facts Q&A p.s. We’re hiring!!

User Experience of Enterprise Software

1. Designing International Enterprise Software Janaki Kumar, Daniel Rosenberg, Paul Hofmann, Michael Arent, SAP Labs, United States .

2. From Research to Product: Integrating Treemaps into Enterprise Software Joseph Goldberg, Jonathan Helfman, John Beresniewicz, Oracle USA, United States .

3. Successful User Experience in an Agile Enterprise Environment Melissa Federoff, Catherine Courage, salesforce.com, United States .

4. Customer Boards as Vehicles of Change in Enterprise Software User Experience Anna Wichansky, Oracle USA, United States .

5. A Retrospective and Prospective View of Information Technology Professionals’ Use of Tools: Maturing the User Experience Candace Soderston, Microsoft Corporation, United States .