why User Centred Agile?

I mentioned in previous posts that Agile Usability is a compromise where the end product suffers. Here, I’d like to expand on that and argue the need for a User Centred Agile approach.

What is out there
As stated by other commentators, in an agile environment, UE is bolted on at the beginning of a project in what is called ‘initial requirements envisioning’ stage that typically takes place at sprint/iteration 0. It is generally suggested that this stage would last from a couple of hours up to two weeks, depending on the size and complexity of the product.
During this initial stage the UE team is expected to identify ‘high level’ requirements and get a ‘good gut feel’ of what the product is about. The focus is on getting something that is ‘just barely good enough’ at this stage and get the process going.

Objections and an alternative way
Existing arguments fail to understand that a user-centred approach will need to include user insights and requirements, which certainly cannot be collected and analysed in a couple of hours. Meeting and observing users is crucial to the design process and cannot be underestimated. Discovering user and client needs naturally comes at the beginning of the project hence iteration 0 is a good idea, though I think ‘0’ gives the wrong message as clients may see it as an unnecessary step. During this discovery phase UE spends time understanding what and how the product will behave and look. A ‘good gut feel’ is simply dangerous as you cannot trust it to base cost, time, and resource estimates on it. Though some of the requirements can change as the project progresses, the discovery stage will help identify and understand the majority of them minimising the risk of any overruns.

I will argue that a well planned and executed discovery stage will help Agile do what it can do best: produce working software within relatively short periods of time.  Having a good understanding of what the final product would do will empower developers to innovate in their approaches and not merely produce a good enough result.