Process: Agile Development

Agile development and UX design are like a couple in an arranged marriage—a relationship between two strangers who are expected to coexist, develop trust and respect, and eventually, love each other. Throw UX research into the mix and you have the makings of an even more awkward alliance, as you can see in this typical conversation between a UX designer and a product owner, somewhere in the middle of Sprint 0:

If you use—or want to start using—an agile-development process, you probably already know its benefits, but you might not be as aware of one of its main drawbacks. Even though 46% of US organizations and 85% internationally report that they’ve used an agile approach within the past year, communicating your agile process to clients remains a challenge.

Specifically, the problem is bridging the gap between clients’ expectations of the process and the way agile really works. But overcoming this difficulty is well worth the effort if you wind up with a first-rate product and a fully satisfied client.

Of course, some clients are already quite familiar with how agile works. However, for those who aren’t—and whose previous experience was with waterfall product-development approaches—explaining the process and merits of agile can be tough. Sure, your clients might know some agile buzzwords, be familiar with some of the tools, or know the importance of meetings to the agile process. However, it’s unlikely that they understand how agile actually works in practice. Read More

As respect for design as a competitive advantage grows, companies are tackling the challenge of integrating design practices into enterprises and digital businesses. DesignOps is an emerging strategy for addressing this challenge. The UX community is now exploring best practices for operationalizing and scaling in-house design.

DevOps is an IT methodology for designing and operating complex IT systems and organizations. DevOps addresses the question of how to build and run sociotechnical systems that can scale without becoming brittle. Understanding the DevOps approach can help the UX community think more broadly and systematically about what it means to scale design.

DevOps and DesignOps are both responses to the same underlying phenomenon. We are living through a transition from an industrial economy whose focus was physical products to a post-industrial economy that centers on digital services. This post-industrial business economy isn’t just about making digital products instead of physical ones. It’s about integrating the physical and digital realms with one another—infusing each with the other. Read More