Integrating usability practices into agile software development
Hänninen, Jutta (2023)
2023
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023052614564
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2023052614564
Tiivistelmä
The goal of the research was to develop a model for the commissioner EnerKey Oy to integrate usability practices into existing agile development process of their software product EG EnerKey. Usability is a critical factor for the success of a software product, and the commissioner had recognized a need to systematically address it in the development process to maintain and enhance its quality.
The research was conducted with a constructive research approach, which is intended specifically for solving practical problems with abstract constructs such as models. An extensive knowledge base about usability in general was gathered discussing its components, principles, and evaluation methods on both theoretical and practical level as understanding the fundamentals of usability is the key to successfully address it. Prior research was explored to find the practices, tools, and resources proposed and used successfully for integrations of usability engineering and agile development.
The model built as the construct of the research was established by extending the existing software development model with the best practices discovered from the prior research. The existing development model already had many of the aspects supporting the usability practices and did not need much adaptation, which made the building of the model an easy task. The model relies heavily on heuristic evaluations performed during the different phases of the software development lifecycle. Part of the new practices were tested which confirmed them being not only beneficial for the software usability but also to overall better understanding the users’ needs and requirements.
The model developed for integrating usability practices into agile development was customized specifically to answer the needs of the case organization and thus is not likely applicable in another context as such. However, the synthesis gathered from prior research can serve as a starting point for other development teams willing to integrate usability practices into their agile way of working. The research also provides some implications of the factors for successful integration such as the understanding of usability, relying on heuristic evaluation and inspecting usability continuously, and having an appointed person serving as a source of usability knowledge for the team.
The research was conducted with a constructive research approach, which is intended specifically for solving practical problems with abstract constructs such as models. An extensive knowledge base about usability in general was gathered discussing its components, principles, and evaluation methods on both theoretical and practical level as understanding the fundamentals of usability is the key to successfully address it. Prior research was explored to find the practices, tools, and resources proposed and used successfully for integrations of usability engineering and agile development.
The model built as the construct of the research was established by extending the existing software development model with the best practices discovered from the prior research. The existing development model already had many of the aspects supporting the usability practices and did not need much adaptation, which made the building of the model an easy task. The model relies heavily on heuristic evaluations performed during the different phases of the software development lifecycle. Part of the new practices were tested which confirmed them being not only beneficial for the software usability but also to overall better understanding the users’ needs and requirements.
The model developed for integrating usability practices into agile development was customized specifically to answer the needs of the case organization and thus is not likely applicable in another context as such. However, the synthesis gathered from prior research can serve as a starting point for other development teams willing to integrate usability practices into their agile way of working. The research also provides some implications of the factors for successful integration such as the understanding of usability, relying on heuristic evaluation and inspecting usability continuously, and having an appointed person serving as a source of usability knowledge for the team.