Integrating UCD with Agile Methods : From the perspective of UX-Designers

Sammanfattning: With the increasing popularity of Agile methods in software development projects, an emerging question is how Agile incorporates user needs to their process – which is the staple of User Centered Design (UCD). Existing reports indicate that integrating Agile and UCD has shown to improve the process and end product and that they are a natural fit. However, there is also a general lack of guidelines of how an effective integration may be done, and further research is requested. This study aims to provide that by portraying some aspects of how Agile and UCD may be integrated in practice, but also some factors that may affect such an integration. This is done through an empirical study, by gaining insights from the perspective of UX-designers who are part of Scrum teams. TenUX-designers took part in semi-structured interviews, and based on a thematic analysis, results are portrayed in terms of suggested factors to consider when integrating Agile and UCD methods.