UX and Agile – Playing Nice

UX & Agile

Playing niceChris Collingridge (@ccollingridge)

11 November 2014

Manchester Metropolitan University 1


1.0 Why on earth listen to me?

2.0 UX methods are for what?

3.0 What is Agile?

4.0 Agile methods are for what?

5.0 Conflict

6.0 Culture

7.0 Playing nice

8.0 Practical tips for success


Sage and me

What do I know?

Sage – Global

• 6 million customers

• 13,300 employees

• Major offices in UK, Ireland,

France, Germany, Spain, USA,

Canada, Australia, & Brazil

– Small business accounting

– Payroll

– Customer relationship management

(CRM)

– Taxation and accountancy

– Electronic payments


Sage – UK

• Only software company in the

FTSE 100

• 800,000 UK businesses use

Sage

• #1 in small business

accounting

• 1 in 4 people in the UK are

paid by Sage Payroll


Sage – Manchester

• Software for accountants in

practice

• On-premise and online

software

• 300,000 sets of company

accounts filed using Sage

each year

• 200,000 corporate tax

submissions

• 520,000 personal tax

submissions


– Final accounts production

– Corporate and personal taxation

– Practice management

– Time recording and billing

– Accountant/client collaboration


Summary

We’re big


Me

– Degree in economics (obviously!)

– Worked in a shop

– Decided there must be a career in

computers

…and mainly self-taught 15 years

later…

– Senior User Experience Specialist,

leading a UX team (of 3)


Day-to-day

• User research – understanding the

problem

• What do people know?

• What are they trying to do?

• Where do they do things?

• What do they value?

• What troubles them?

• Interaction design – solving the

problem

• Information architecture

• User flows

• Patterns

• Low-level interaction (controls etc.)

• Usability testing – evaluating

solutions


My experience of Agile

• The Manchester UX team support a

development team of ~80, all developing

software using Agile methods

• We have tried a variety of approaches,

with a variable level of success

• Developed an approach to UX in Agile that

works for us


UX methods are for

what?


User Experience work is trying to…

@jopas


Focus on meeting human needs and desires


Common UX-focussed activities

• User research – understanding the problem

• What do people know?

• What are they trying to do?

• Where do they do things?

• What do they value?

• What troubles them?

• Interaction design – solving the problem

• How do we group and name things?

• What workflows will make sense?

• What will people know, recognise, and be able to interact with?

• What are consistent patterns we can use in multiple places?

• Usability testing – evaluating solutions

• Are these ideas any good?

• Can we catch problems before we build them into software?


What is Agile?

Agile is…


A philosophy

Agile manifesto


We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping

others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the

left more.

Agile principles


Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer*

through early and continuous delivery of valuable

software.

*this is whoever commissioned the software, not the person who ends

up buying/using it

Agile principles


Welcome changing requirements, even late in

development. Agile processes harness change for

the customer's* competitive advantage.

*this is whoever commissioned the software, not the person who ends

up buying/using it

Agile principles


Deliver working software frequently, from a

couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a

preference to the shorter timescale.

Agile principles


Business people and developers must work

together daily throughout the project.

Agile principles


Build projects around motivated individuals.

Give them the environment and support they

need, and trust them to get the job done.

Agile principles


The most efficient and effective method of

conveying information to and within a development

team is face-to-face conversation.

Agile principles


Working software is the primary measure of

progress.

Agile principles


Agile processes promote sustainable

development.

The sponsors, developers, and users should be

able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

Agile principles


Continuous attention to technical excellence

and good design* enhances agility.

*this is talking about technical design

Agile principles


Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount

of work not done--is essential.

Agile principles


At regular intervals, the team reflects on how

to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts

its behaviour accordingly.

Agile principles


The best architectures, requirements, and

designs* emerge from self-organizing teams.

*this is talking about technical design

Agile is…


Not a processbut a state of mind

Agile principles


There are lots of processes that can be used in line with an

Agile state of mind…but the using the process does not

mean you are “being agile”. You may be “doing agile”.

• Scrum

• Kanban

• DSDM

• FDD

• Etc.


Agile methods are for

what?

Agile is a reaction against…


• Long projects before delivery

• Comprehensive documentation that was never

comprehensive enough

• Inability to adapt to inevitably changing requirements

• Poor, useless, unreliable software, chained to a delivery

date that is never met

• Demoralised, stressed, and under-appreciated

development teams

Agile is focussed on delivering…


• Technically high-quality software

• Software that is what the customer* wants, by getting

regular feedback

• Features that are wanted* when the software is

released, not what was wanted 2 years ago

• Motivated, high-performing development teams

*wanted by whoever commissioned the software, not the person who

ends up buying/using it


Conflict


Trying to achieve different things


Trying to achieve different things

How do we serve

human needs

with technology?

How do we make

software

development better?VS


User ExperienceMaking all of a really great pie


AgileReally delivering a nice piece of pie, now


User ExperienceDesign studio mentality


User ExperienceDesign studio mentality


AgileInternal systems/production mentality


AgileInternal systems/production mentality


Some of the potential challenges

User Experience Agile

Understand the whole problem Understand only the bit of the problem

you need to solve right now

Have time to think through a variety of

solutions and experiment with them

Define a solution quickly to the

immediate problem

Collaborate with other designers,

researchers, before committing

Self-sufficient development teams,

without “chickens”

Schedule in time to research

behaviours, attitudes, contexts

Work in short blocks (e.g. 2 weeks),

on whatever is the top priority at the

time

Focus on the details and polish Delivering the minimum possible to

fulfil a requirement


There’s only one way to solve this…


How could the Agile state

of mind help?

Agile values…


• Collaboration

• Positive response to changing requirements

• Iteration

• Short feedback cycles

• Delivering working software quickly

• Simplicity and avoiding feature bloat

• Attention to high quality design and reliable software

Agile values…


Development teams that have a truly Agile culture are less

resistant to change, more helpful and collaborative, more

open to iteration, and happier places to work for a designer.

Designers with an Agile state of mind are less resistant to

change, more helpful and collaborative, more open to

iteration, and more enjoyable to work with for software

developers.


Playing nicely together

What you need to do as a UX Designer


• Respect the knowledge, input, and creativity of everyone

involved in creating software products

• They do not stand in the way of your idea; they

contribute and improve your ideas

• Use your empathetic skills to understand what different

people in your team get from Agile processes, and why

you should respect that

• Get your skin in the game – the success of the team is

your success; you can only succeed through them

• Believe that your only real deliverable is working

software that delivers value to human beings

What you need to do as a UX Designer


If you don’t do these things, no amount

of process, technique, or method is

going to help

What you need to do see in others


• An absence of Scrumdamentalism – that there is a single

way to “do Agile”, as written in a book

• Most common in people who’ve recently be on a

Scrum Master course (or similar)

• An understanding that software must at least be usable,

and preferably engaging and delightful – not just

functional and reliable – for it to be of high quality

• An appreciation that there are other tasks that the team

need to complete apart from writing and testing code

• A willingness to embrace changes and iteration

What you need to do see in others


If you don’t see these things, you are

likely to need to use your influencing

skills first – this is a people problem to

overcome. It will not be solved by

wireframes.


Practical tips and tricks

Health warning


Agile teams should differThere is not an “answer”


Some things that probably will work


Start first



Keep ahead



But stay close



Be part of the team



Get the big picture, then the detail



Break it down



Involve others



Get into a rhythm

…and some that probably won’t


Design very close to implementation (e.g. in

the same sprint)



Carrying on with big-design-up-front



Delivering “deliverables”



Separate teams



Equating “Agile” with “agile”


And finally…


If you only remember one thing…

Agile methods are a wonderful opportunity to

produce amazing software quickly, through

awesome collaboration with wonderful teams.

This is not a process: it is a culture, a

philosophy, and an adventure.


Thanks

Chris Collingridge

@ccollingridge