[Sigia-l] Agile, Scrum and UX?

Fri Mar 20 16:36:15 EDT 2015

I find that it can and does work (we use it at my job) but it requires the
entire organization to buy in - from how projects are defined and how they
are rolled out. That's the hard part.

On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 4:29 PM, Jonathan Baker-Bates <
jonathan at bakerbates.com> wrote:

> Also a bit dated being from 2010, but here's my experience from the UX
> end of things:
>
> http://webtorque.org/scrum-didnt-work-for-us/
>
> I have no doubt that Scrum works. It’s just that it works for other people.
>
>
> On 20 March 2015 at 20:02, Adrian Howard <adrianh at quietstars.com> wrote:
> >
> >> On 20 Mar 2015, at 18:33, Tom Donehower <tdonehower at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> For those of you out there who are or have been part of a SCRUM for
> product development, where has UX and visual design fit in the process if
> at all?
> >
> > <aside> It’s not an acronym so "Scrum" not "SCRUM". It’s a bit of a
> shibboleth in the agile community ;-) </aside>
> >
> >> I’m trying to understand where these other roles and their deliverables
> fit in relation to a sprint from others past experiences.
> >>
> >> Shared experiences, war stories, and insight greatly appreciated.
> >
> > This is a few years old but still a relevant read
> >
> >
> http://www.agileproductdesign.com/blog/emerging_best_agile_ux_practice.html
> >
> > Unfortunately it’s really one of those it-depends questions I’m afraid.
> My advice would change quite a bit depending on the UX folk involved, the
> team, how good they are at actually doing Scrum, etc.
> >
> > For example at the more generative end (user research, interviewing,
> etc.) there is a strong overlap between UX and the Product Owner role in
> Scrum. So I’ve seen some teams work very effectively by having a UX person
> basically fill that role, or be a heavy support role for the actual PO.
> >
> > On the other hand many of the most effective agile teams I’ve worked
> with tend to embed UX in the team. The embedded role tends towards doing a
> lot more facilitating of UX work by the whole team, as well as doing
> hands-on work.
> >
> > If you can talk a bit more about any particular issues you’re having I
> might be able to give some more specific advice.
> >
> > For further reading have a Google around "Agile UX" & "Lean UX". The
> Lean UX stuff grew out of folk applying UXish things in Lean Startup
> context — but it’s bigger than that now, being used in lots of non-startup
> contexts, and is a good fit for agile.
> >
> > Book wise I’d at least glance at these:
> >
> > * Agile User Experience Design, Diana Brown - This is great for UX folk
> wanting to grok agile more, and has several case studies on agile/ux teams.
> However, it doesn’t really dive deep into specific Agile UX practices. Good
> overview book. Especially for non-agile UX folk.
> >
> > * Agile Experience Design, Lindsay Ratcliffe & Marc McNeill - Much more
> of a toolbox of techniques/approaches book. The last third-ish of the book
> is basically a list of techniques. There’s some stuff I’d niggle with in
> here. Especially on some of the ways they talk about Agile - but it’s kinda
> hair-splitting stuff if you’re just getting started ;-)
> >
> > * User-Centered Agile Methods, Hugh Beyer — This is more of a UX-person
> coming to Agile book, than an Agile folk adopting UX book (if you see what
> I mean). My personal approach is a little bit different from Hugh’s - but
> there’s definitely stuff worth thinking about here. If you’re dealing with
> a more traditional UCD group then this would be very approachable for them.
> >
> > * Lean UX, Jeff Gothelf & Josh Seiden - "The" book on Lean UX. Good
> introductory read on Lean UX, but can only do so much for the size of book.
> It’s also a bit light on some of the more generative user research
> approaches from my personal perspective. Still a useful read though.
> >
> > * UX for Lean Startups, Laura Klein - I think this fills some gaps in
> Jeff & Josh’s Lean UX book. Especially on the user research side. I also
> think it’s a *much* more approachable read to non-UX folk. Something that
> you can give to the rest of the team.
> >
> > * Lean Customer Development, Cindy Alvarez - Again, something very
> approachable to non-UX folk in language and tone. Like Jeff, Josh’s &
> Laura’s books it doesn’t spend a lot of time talking about integration with
> agile teams specifically, but the techniques fit in with agile approaches
> very well (indeed, agile approaches are required for this sort of UX
> approach to work well.). This is more relevant to PO folk.
> >
> > Just on the topic of usability testing, the stuff in Steve Krug’s
> "Rocket Surgery Made Easy" fits in really nicely with agile - and very
> approachable for non-UX folk.
> >
> > I’d also keep an eye on Tomer Sharon’s upcoming Lean User Research book
> from Rosenfeld
> http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/lean-user-research-product-development/
> >
> > Outside of books I’d also take a poke at these two online communities.
> >
> > * Balanced Team (balancedteam.org) - This community grew out of some UX
> and Agile folk trying to play nice together, but has a bit of a broader
> scope now. They do online/offline meetups, conferences, and the mailing
> list is as useful as respectful as this one is IMHO. I first heard about
> the stuff Janice Fraser et al were doing around Lean UX here, long before
> it was cool and sexy ;-)
> >
> > * https://groups.yahoo.com/groups/agile-usability/info - This is AFAIK
> the oldest community of folk that have been poking at Agile & UX. Almost no
> traffic now, but has a bunch of smart folk subscribed and some gold in the
> archives.
> >
> > To be honest I think plugging into the online communities around agile
> ux & lean ux will be more helpful to you than the books. Despite folk
> having been poking around this for more than ten years now, not enough of
> it has been written down.
> >
> > Also, while I don’t really actively curate these anymore you may find
> some of the links on
> >
> >     https://pinboard.in/u:adrianh/t:leanux
> >     https://pinboard.in/u:adrianh/t:agileux
> >     https://pinboard.in/u:adrianh/t:agile+ux
> >
> > of interest (although the relevance to the topic may, on occasion, need
> filtering through my brain first ;-)
> >
> > <biased>
> > Oh yes. I may put out a newsletter on the topic occasionally that might
> be useful. Previous issues / subscription at http://is.gd/HNz5TN
> > </biased>
> >
> >> Would also be curious if you've used a scrum tool you would recommend
> like
> >> Pivotal Tracker or Axosoft OnTime.
> >
> > Have happily used Pivotal, Jira & Trello on projects. Have also worked
> on projects where they’ve been a terrible hinderance. They’re just tools. I
> tend towards starting with post-it notes or index cards, and move to
> digital tools if/when necessary.
> >
> > Hope that helps.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Adrian
> >
> > --
> > adrianh at quietstars.com / +44 (0)7752 419080 / @adrianh / quietstars.com
> > (CSSTWP.com the product team certification programme you can trust! ;-)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------
> > 2015  IA Summit
> > April 22-26, 2015
> > Minneapolis, MN
> > -----
> > When replying, please *trim your post* as much as possible.
> > *Plain text, please; NO Attachments
> >
> > Searchable Archive at http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/
> > ________________________________________
> > Sigia-l mailing list -- post to: Sigia-l at asis.org
> > Changes to subscription: http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l
>
> ------------
> 2015  IA Summit
> April 22-26, 2015
> Minneapolis, MN
> -----
> When replying, please *trim your post* as much as possible.
> *Plain text, please; NO Attachments
>
> Searchable Archive at http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/
> ________________________________________
> Sigia-l mailing list -- post to: Sigia-l at asis.org
> Changes to subscription: http://mail.asis.org/mailman/listinfo/sigia-l
>