Combining interaction design and agile methods for better project management

Abstract

Despite the widespread use of internet-based information systems there are many examples of failure in the development of such projects. Traditional approaches to software development have been identified as contributing factor to the statistics with many reports calling for the appropriate use of the recently emerging Agile Methods (AMs). However, despite their popularity and apparent success problems have been reported in their use. One, that is particularly relevant to internet development, is that AMs typically ignore consideration of the user experience before development begins which ultimately results in a less desirable system. AMs advocate little upfront investigation, instead emphasizing ongoing customer collaboration throughout the life of the project to supply any information required about users. The suggestion here is that aspects of Interaction Design (ID) can be conducted in an agile manner before an agile project commences and that this can be linked to that ongoing development. This paper presents such a process, combining ID and Scrum, the agile project management method. Also, a case study of its use is presented providing encouraging results.