Overcoming Challenges in Agile User Experience Work: Cross-Case Analysis of Two Large Software Organizations

User experience (UX) has become an increasingly important factor in the success or failure of software systems. However, established agile practices for ensuring desired UX of the software under development are largely missing. Consequently, companies are facing problems in conducting UX work in agile development. This paper contributes towards understanding those problems and developing means to overcome them. We present results from a cross-case analysis of survey data from two large international software companies in this paper. Altogether, we surveyed 128 practitioners regarding challenges in agile UX work, the actual and desired contribution of UX specialists, and means to improve the current situation. For tighter integration between the disciplines, we suggest including the UX specialist in the development team itself.

I. Introduction

Agile [5] development methodologies have become a norm in software development [3]. Simultaneously, user experience (UX) has become a significant competitive advantage in software markets (e.g. [2]). However, agile methodologies do not give guidance on how to conduct UX work as part of agile software development practices: They do not recognize the role of UX specialist (UXS) nor guide developers in the work related to UX. In spite of attempts to integrate UX work with agile practices, researchers are reporting problems in conducting UX work in agile software development [9].