1. GS Grad School: IA and UX: Week 7
Agile and User Experience
Dave Burke
daveburke.com
2. Dave Burke daveburke.com
• The inputs for UX design
• Exercise
• Case study from The Washington Post
Introduction
4. Dave Burke daveburke.com
• All one big team
• Get points by moving a ball through everyone’s hands
• Ball must “catch air” in between hands
• Cannot pass the ball to the person on your immediate right or left
• Ball must return to the person who introduced it to the system
• Three iterations
Ball Point Exercise
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Ball Point Exercise
estimate actual
5 11
Round 1:
Thoughts:
• uncertain
• confused
• more work than necessary
7. Dave Burke daveburke.com
Ball Point Exercise
estimate actual
11 41
Round 2:
Thoughts:
• got rid of inefficiency
• burdened a resource?
• simpler, more natural
11. Dave Burke daveburke.com
• Do we need more research/planning?
• Would an extra 5 minutes of planning achieved the same results?
• What if we brought in an expert?
• What if we downloaded a research report?
• Maybe the best way is to just start doing it.
Ball Point Exercise
12. Dave Burke daveburke.com
Knowledge gap when building unknown solutions
volum
e
decisions
knowledge
Discovery
Design
Development
Testing
Deployment v1.0
17. Washington Post IT Unit
• About 150 people
• Supports operations of the newspaper and some operations at other
Washington Post Company affiliates, including:
• Publishing
• Advertising
• Circulation
• Syndication
• Accounting
• Production
21. • Test Scripts
• Working Build
• Wireframes
• Architecture Diagrams
• Requirements Doc
• Known specs
Dave Burke daveburke.com
• Discrete phases
• Tight discipline
• Specific and unchanging requirements
• Design and development standards
The Waterfall: Measure twice, cut once
Discovery
Design
Development
Testing
Deployment
• Launch
The goal: Build the thing right.
22. Dave Burke daveburke.com
• When it's familiar territory
• Better for projects with high levels of integration
with existing systems
• When working prototypes for user feedback are
more expensive/difficult to produce (e.g., non-
web)
Waterfall works well for large-scale projects
25. Dave Burke daveburke.com
• Simplified project governance (Senior Management)
• Bigger projects mean fewer per year to track
• Project bloat
• Hoarding of IT Resources
• Inaccurate LOE and schedule estimates (IT Management)
• Bigger projects with more parts and objectives are harder to estimate
• Tendency toward "Launch and move on" mentality
• More risk that changing business needs will outpace development
Potential effects of waterfall projects
26. Dave Burke daveburke.com
When things go wrong in the waterfall
“We built all this upsell capability,
but after launch we learned it was
completely off-target for the
audience.” – IT
“By the time the project finished,
the business needs had totally
changed.” – Business Analyst
“By the time the site launched it
looked completely different from
what we had envisioned.”
– Designer
“If I knew in the beginning what
I know now, we would have
made a very different site.”
– Business Client
30. •“We actively develop new revenue streams from non-traditional
sources.”
•“We introduce and support new brands, selectively, when we
believe that doing so allows us to achieve the full potential an
opportunity may afford.”
•“We make bets on ideas that can have material impact even if
they entail high risk. We invest in small-scale experiments to
learn more about areas of strategic opportunity where
uncertainty is high. More than ever, responsible innovation is
necessary for our success.”
•“Because of the high level of marketplace uncertainty, we
regularly monitor and revisit our strategies, being willing and
Dave Burke daveburke.com
Strategic Focus: Innovation
31. Dave Burke daveburke.com
Where IT comes in
Align our methodologies to support innovation. . .
• Partner with the business to explore and realize new revenue streams
• Enable those “bets” and “small-scale experiments”
• Improve speed to market; bring value faster
. . . While we remain true to our core mission of supporting the
traditional business
32. Dave Burke daveburke.com
A shift in emphasis
Build the thing right.
Waterfall:
Build the right thing.
Iterative:
33. Dave Burke daveburke.com
An alternate approach: Iterative
Discovery
Design
Development
Testing
Deployment v1.0
ß ß ß ß ß
T I M E
• Better fit for product innovation
• Speed to market with beta releases
• Betas prove/refine the concept
• Earlier value generation
• More user feedback, which guides the next iterations
The goal: Build the right thing.
35. Dave Burke daveburke.com
The 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.
February 13, 2001
37. Dave Burke daveburke.com
Scrum Roles
Product Owner
• The maker/keeper of the product vision;
• The ultimate "decider" of what get works on
• The ultimate "decider" of when a feature is "done".
• Keeper of the product backlog -- keeps stories in priority order
• The ultimate "decider" of the release schedule
Project Team
• Ultimate "decider" of how many stories can be completed in a
sprint
• Ultimate "decider" of how the work gets done:
• what deliverables will be produced (wireframes, comps,
sequence diagrams, etc.) to complete the product iteration
• who will work on what task
• what technology/code techniques will be used to complete
tasks
• Own the task list
ScrumMaster
• Facilitates the Scrum process/keeps the team focused
• Works with the Product Owner on maintenance of the product
backlog
• Facilitates scrum meeting
• Schedules/facilitates other meetings like look-ahead and sprint
review.
• Removes obstacles from product team
• "protects" product team from scope creep, etc.
• Does not commit to work on behalf of the team
• Works with no authority over the team
38. Dave Burke daveburke.com
Scrum Artifacts and Rituals
Sprint • A specified period of time focused on doing the work
• No scope changes allowed during the sprint
• No expansion of the sprint allowed
Product Backlog • A list of requested featured, placed in priority order
with the most important features at the top
• Features are listed as “user stories” with very little detail
• “As a job seeker, I wish to be able to upload my
resume to the site so that potential employers can
see it.”
• Anyone can add items to the backlog
• The Product Owner has final say on prioritization
Sprint Task List • A list of the tasks that must be done by the team to
complete a story
• Owned and maintained by the team
• Updated by the team as tasks are completed
Scrum Meeting • Quick meeting every day
• 15 minutes tops (5-10 is better)
• Covers progress and any obstacles
• Conducted by the team -- anyone can listen in on the
meeting, but cannot participate
39. Dave Burke daveburke.com
Let’s clarify: Iterative vs. incremental
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spielzimmer/429215172/
Got the whole brick wall metaphor from Jeff Patton talking to Jared Spool.
http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/08/05/spoolcast-ux-in-an-agile-environment-with-jeff-patton/
40. Dave Burke daveburke.com
Maintain a complete user experience
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kellysue/2831068087/
Got the whole cake metaphor listening to Brandon Schauer talk about The Long Wow.
http://www.uie.com/articles/the_long_wow
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the-icing-on-the-cake/2433839043/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chidorian/2295547909/
41. Dave Burke daveburke.com
• When the feature set is evolving
• Bets on ideas; small-scale experiments
• Minimal IT investment
• Low-cost failure
• Because it’s in line with the advantages of the web
• Easier to update, enhance, evolve
• Instant customer feedback
• Incremental releases of new functionality (Betas)
Iterative works well. . .
42. Dave Burke daveburke.com
Challenges/Risks with iterative products
• Business pressure to deliver results early after release
• Requires more agile-oriented
• Marketing
• Support
• Expectations
• Resource proportioning
45. The wine/Vine experience
Research home, wine store, restaurant, bar,
friend’s house
Record Research home, wine store, restaurant, bar,
friend’s house
Select wine store, restaurant, bar, party
Buy wine store, restaurant, bar
Consume home
restaurant, bar, friend’s house
Assess home
restaurant, bar, friend’s house
Remember home, restaurant, bar, friend’s house
Record Preference home
restaurant, bar, friend’s house
Recommend home, work, out with friends, restaurant,
bar, store, online