This document discusses user involvement in agile projects. It provides information on why involving users is important, how users can be involved in agile development, and how user involvement can be improved. Specifically, it discusses methods for understanding user needs, specifying requirements, designing solutions, and evaluating designs. It also presents research on how IT professionals involve users in agile projects through surveys and interviews. Key findings include that defining UX responsibilities, meeting with users face-to-face, and conducting formal evaluations are important for improving user involvement.

1. Dr. Marta Kristín Lárusdóttir
Infinit Event Copenhagen
6th December 2016
User Involvement in Agile Projects

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Marta – Education and Work Experience

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Subjects
• WHY is it important to involve users?
• HOW can we involve users in agile development?
• WHAT do IT professionals do?
• HOW do they succeed?
• HOW can you improve your user involvement?

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My Critical Moment in 1998

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Our Great Software MMDS

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The Development Process
• The Clients came with 3 months interval
– from Australia
• We were working for more than a year
– On the Australian system
– A team of 10 – 15 people
– We had an ISO 9001 accreditation for our process
• I was responsible for functional testing
• I went to Australia to teach the users
– how to use the system
– 5 weeks before the deployment
• I discovered some problems

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A study from Sweden – White Collar Workers
• 38% think it is hard to learn how
to use the IT systems
• Estimate that 26 mins in average
could be saved each day
– IT systems without problems
• 10 - 12 million SEK could
be saved each year
• Reference: TJÄNSTEMÄNNENS IT-MILJÖ 2014 - ”Lyssna på
oss som ska använda det”
– http://www.unionen.se/filer/rapport/tjanstemannens-it-miljo-2014-lyssna-pa-oss-
som-ska-anvanda-det

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Standish Report - 2015
Standish Group 2015 Chaos Report - Q&A with Jennifer Lynch
https://www.infoq.com/articles/standish-chaos-2015

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So..... Involving Users is Important
But HOW?

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Scrum
• Roles
• Product Owner
• Scrum Master
• Team member
• Artifacts
• Product Backlog
• Sprint Backlog
• Product Increment
• Activities
• Sprint planning
• Retrospective
• Sprint review (demo)
• Daily standup meetings

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The Phases of User Involvement

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Methods: Understand the Context of Use
Interviews
Workshops
Meetings
Field study

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Methods: Specify User Requirements
Personas
User Stories
Scenarios
Usability Goals
Mr. and Mrs. Macomb are retired schoolteachers who are now in their 70's.
Their Social Security checks are an important part of their income. They've
just sold their big house and moved to a small apartment. They know that
one of the many chores they need to do now is to tell the Social Security
Administration that they have moved. They don't know where the nearest
Social Security office is and it's getting harder for them to do a lot of walking
or driving, so they would like to do this on the computer if it is easy and safe
enough. However, they are somewhat nervous about doing a task like this
by computer. They never used computers in their jobs; but their son, Steve,
gave them a computer last year, set it up for them, and showed them how to
use email and how to go to Web sites. They have never been to the Social
Security Administration's Web site, so they don't know how it is organized.
Also, they are reluctant to give out personal information on Web sites, so
they want to know how safe it is to tell the agency about their new address
this way.
1. 90% of students can find information about
how to apply for funding (effectiveness)
2. It takes each student less than 2 minutes to
apply for funding (efficiency)
3. Students grade their overall satisfaction
above 4 on average on a 1- 5 scale
(Satisfaction)

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Methods: Produce Design Solutions

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Methods: Evaluations
Expert evaluation
Informal evaluation
Prototype interview
Formal evaluation

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Agile UX
Charles Lamdin on Twitter:
https://mobile.twitter.com/CGLambdin/status/712713187833958400

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Many Possible Ways of Including
Users in Agile Projects
WHAT works for IT professionals?

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Researching User Involvement in Agile
• Studied with IT professionals in Sweden and Iceland
– 4 surveys (~250 part.) and 4 interview studies (~40 participants)
• Many collaborators
– University professors and students
• Written many papers about it
– Google profile: Marta Larusdottir
• https://scholar.google.is/citations?user=cTb1MVIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

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Survey: Usability Techniques in Scrum
Yuan Jia Marta Kristín Lárusdóttir Åsa Cajander

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Main Questions
• How many participants have used the methods
– Out of the 13 user centred design techniques selected?
• How often are the techniques used?
• How do the IT professionals rate the techniques
they have used?
• Paper in 2012
• 49 participants in Scrum Projects mainly in Sweden

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Fundamental Scrum Activities
• Retrospective less frequent than other meeting types

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How Many Have Used each Method?

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How Often Do They Use the Methods?

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What is the Best Method?

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Interview study in Sweden
Marta Kristín Lárusdóttir Åsa Cajander Jan Gulliksen

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Interview Study for Deeper Understanding
• Did 21 interview in Sweden
– 2 researchers
• Interviewees had various roles
• Met them at different places
• The objective
– Deeper understanding of user
involvement in Scrum

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Results: Types of Evaluation Conducted
Type of evaluation
Empirical
Quantitative
Evaluation Empirical Qualitative Evaluation
Analytical
Qualitative
Evaluation
Evaluation
Method
Professional Role
N
Measuring
user
performance
and surveys
Observing
Users
Asking
user their
opinions
Feedback
from user
surrogates
Inspection
evaluation
Usability experts 5 2 5 4 1 5
Interaction designers 7 1 5 6 3 3
Business analysts 4 0 1 4 0 1
Developers 2 0 0 1 1 2
Scrum managers 3 1 2 3 2 1
Total 21 4 13 18 7 12

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Results: Purpose of the Evaluation
Purpose of the
Evaluation
Professional Role N
Feedback on
Context of
Use
Feedback on
User
Requirements
Feedback on
Design
Usability experts 5 3 4 5
Interaction designers 7 5 6 6
Business analysts 4 3 4 3
Developers 2 1 0 2
Scrum managers 3 0 2 3
Total 21 12 16 19

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Who is Responsible for a Usable Product?

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Informal and Implicit User Involvement
in Scrum Projects
WHAT matters for succeeding?

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The Male UX Specialist
• PhD in HCI
• 46 years old
• 13 years of experience in different
consultant companies
• Has integrated UX in several Scrum
projects

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His Focus and Opinions
• The strategic vision and the UX goals are
necessary to define
– before the actual project starts
• The big picture of UX is missing in Scrum.
– Scrum is feature oriented
• Most user involvement should be done before
production starts
– and then every now and then
• Close collaboration with the PO is important

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His Way of Integrating UCD and Scrum
Illustration from the web page: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WATERFALL, AGILE &
INTEGRATED PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN CREATIVE FIRMS
http://adsubculture.com/traffic-project-management/2015/1/21/the-difference-between

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The Female UX Specialist
• Master of Media Technology Science
• 35 years old
• 4 years of experience from working in
industry
• UX specialist
• Very successful in her work so far

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Her Focus and Opinions
• She was the owner of the design
– The team was collaborating on developing that
– Collaborated with informal leaders of the teams
• Being a part of the whole project is needed
– Small talk essential
• Her company started to sell UX
– rather than features
• Hard to find good timing for UX evaluation in Scrum
• She often designs one sprint ahead

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Her Approach as Suggested by Sy
Desirée Sy. 2007. Adapting usability investigations for agile user-centered
design. J. Usability Studies 2, 3 (May 2007), 112-132.

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Informal and implicit user
involvement in Scrum
HOW can you improve your
user involvement?

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HOW Can You Improve the User Involvement?
• Define the responsibility for UX
– for all roles; team members, Scrum master and PO.
• Meet face-to-face
– People responsible for Usability and UX should regularly
have face-to-face communication with the actual users
– At least once during each sprint
– Preferably in their own environment
• Conduct formal evaluation when possible
– These are highly rated
• Use multiple channels
– such as social media, user forums or tweets to include the
users in parallel with face-to-face communication