Agile's Secret Step: Discovery

1. April 11, 2011 Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery @lishubert
2. April 11, 2011 Agile’s Secret Steps Discovery & Planning The Big Redux DC
3. Waterfall Agile • Distinct project “phases” • Overlapping phases • Handoffs • Iterations @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
4. Waterfall Agile Requirements Design Development UX @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
5. Waterfall Agile Requirements ? Design Development UX @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
6. Lis Hubert UX Consultant @lishubert www.elisabethhubert.com @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
7. So What? @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
8. @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
12. Agile is a DEVELOPMENT methodology... @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
13. Agile is a DEVELOPMENT methodology... but WHAT are we developing? @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
16. Agile... is NOT the enemy @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
17. How do we get here? Agile UX @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
19. Discovery = the “What” • User Research • Business Research • Competitive Analysis @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
20. Product Roadmap • The “What” prioritized @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
21. Same Page Business Technology/IT User Experience @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
22. “Hey guys here is what to build next.” Strategy @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
23. “Hey guys here is “Roger that. Oh what to build and by the way...” next.” Strategy Project Communication @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
24. Agile Strategy Project Communication @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
25. Agile Strategy Project UX Communication UX @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
26. Product Strategy Project x n Communication @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
27. Review Project @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
28. Review @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
29. Review @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
30. Review What do we get? • Increased Speed • Decreased User Risk • Decreased Technical Risk @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
31. Discovery & Planning... Just Do It @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011
32. Thanks! @lishubert www.elisabethhubert.com @lishubert Agile’s Secret Step: Discovery May 14, 2011

Editor's Notes

\n

There are really 2 secret steps to Agile. Discovery and Planning. They go hand and hand.\n

When I say Agile I mean a project execution methodology that is in opposition to something like waterfall.\n

Waterfall we had a phase we knew where we &#x201C;fit&#x201D;\n

But where do we fit in in Agile??\n

\n

I learned Agile in a large corporation.... nickname the Titanic\n

By decreasing risk to the code and releases the IT team on the &#x201C;Titanic&#x201D; promised to increase speed and efficiency\n

Nobody could say where UX fit into Agile\n

Currently it&#x2019;s all about increasing speed and getting to market faster.\n

What everyone forgets is that agile was created as a development methodology.\n

but what are we building? What is the product? Who are the users? What is the context of use?\n

On the flip side, companies think that &#x201C;agile&#x201D; is their golden goose, promising them lower overhead and more speed. They still don&#x2019;t know where we fit in or what we do.\n

Two main problems.\n1. UX/Design slows agile down. That is because we have no idea who are users are, what the context is for our designs and what content goes into things. Not having this background causes the &#x201C;churn&#x201D; discussions.\n2. IT release bugs/errors because they don&#x2019;t have complete use cases. Thus spending the next several iterations fixing problems instead of extending the product.\n

We blame the methodology, but it&#x2019;s not Agile&#x2019;s fault we are implementing it incorrectly.\n

Let&#x2019;s start by looking at what makes agile successful then add in the UX pieces.\n

Have a beer backlog and knowing the order that the backlog is being bottled allows this bottling assembly line to move fast. Think of agile like an assembly line. When we do that we realize we need to have a feature backlog that is prioritized.\n

Discovery gives us our feature backlog.\n

Planning with our biz and tech partners gets us the prioritized backlog.\n

The outcome of having this 2 things gets all of us on the same page as to what is being created, why, and in what order. \n

Skillset wise we end up with a strategy group that is constantly researching and prioritizing outside of agile. They are determining what features should be built next and queueing them up for the project teams.\n

At the same time the project teams are doing their own research and design on a specific set of features. They should be providing feedback to the strategy team and vice versa. This is NOT modified waterfall process, but instead these teams work in tandem. \n

The project is what Agile was created to speed up. By taking all the churn causing decisions and discussion out of the project we are able to increase speed. \n

These are the places where UX fits in. Keep in mind there are awesome design problems to solve within the project, but having a focused set of features gives us our design constraints to design within.\n

Thus our product consists of an overall strategy that is being built by 1 - many projects.\n

Remember Agile is like an assembly line. We need a prioritized backlog to keep the line moving.\n

Discovery gets us our back log\n

Planning with our Biz & Tech teams prioritizes this backlog\n

Thus we get increased speed by removing churn and focusing design and development. Decrease user risk by not developing features the user doesn&#x2019;t want and decreased tech risk\n

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Agile's Secret Step: Discovery

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