Agile Development that Incorporates User Experience, Part 1
Chapter: Executive Summary
As I’m reading through the Nielsen Norman Group’s lengthy (and pricey) report Agile Development that Incorporates User Experience, I will be sharing notes & key quotes chapter by chapter.
Key Takeaways
Combining Agile & UX does not happen without consequences and unique issues, however through a variety of tactics (discussed in the book at large) and changing of mindset, it can be done. And once incorporated, it helps the entire design & development process.
One caveat: User Research should be done first before any development begins.
Key Quotes
“The only thing worse than having developers deviate from the design specs is when the developers implement the design specs to the letter.”
“The answer to this problem is to design storyboards and prototypes that embed the user interface architecture and can be used as reference points when designing individual features.”
“Most successful teams have adopted a parallel track approach, where the user experience work is continuously done one step ahead of the implementation work. By the time the sprint starts to develop a feature, the initial user experience work on that feature has just been completed.”
“Finally, it must be recognized that there is a need for foundational user research that goes beyond feature development. Mainly, such work should be done before a development project is even started.”
“The main change for user experience practitioners who must support an Agile team is in mindset.”
“If you are prepared to change your practices and take on the responsibility, there are great opportunities to improve your effectiveness and impact on the teams you support.”
Chapters
- Executive Summary
- Agile — theory and history
- Agile in practice
- Challenges for UX practitioners
- Integrating UX into Agile teams
- Guerilla Usability — Quick & Dirty Techniques
- Making it Happen
Be sure to follow me for the following parts to this series.
