I don’t know that I’ve ever written about this topic before, but it is one I’ve definitely done a great deal of thinking on. Most of my thinking was done a few years ago while at a company that was just implementing agile as a development methodology. My gears started turning again when, yesterday, I came upon David Farkas’ article on this topic: How UCD and Agile can live together.
I love the way that he begins to define and categorize the different terms and phases within this realm. One thing, however, that I think is missing (and may not be appropriate for this article) is the idea that UX is ideally always iterative and therefore should fit pretty well into an agile environment. Otherwise, I mostly agree with the Phases that the author defines. Having a UX strategy is what I believe makes the entire process work. There needs to be solid ground (the purpose and overall “how” in this case) for the entire team (both UX and dev included) to stand on, in order to move quickly, efficiently, but with purpose.
I’d love to hear your take on the article and/or my comments on it. What is he missing? What did he get right?
Also, if you’re in the NYC area and are interested in this topic don’t forget to check out the Agile Experience Design meetup. Great discussion going on there!