Communications - January 2011

in the sprint planning that has to happen. For example, Jean-Luc would let me know we really needed to have a certain aspect of the UI sorted out by some particular sprint, which meant I had essentially received my marching orders. Conversely, there also were times when I needed to see some particular functionality in place in time to use it as part of a live build I wanted to incorporate into an upcoming round of formative testing. That, alone, would require a ton of coordination.

The other important influence on sprint planning comes from product management, since they too often want to be able to show off some certain capabilities by some particular date. With all three of these vested in-

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terests constantly vying to have certain parts of the product materialize by certain points in time, there’s plenty of negotiating to be done along the way.

RutteR: Yes, but I think you have to accept that some reengineering of bits and pieces along the way is just an inherent part of the process. That is, based on feedback from testing, you can bank on sprints down the line involving the reengineering of at least a few of the things that have already been built. But as long as that’s what you ex-pect…no problem.

aGathos: I think you’re right about that: we have to develop a mind-set that’s accepting of changes along the way. But I actually think the biggest problem is the tooling. The develop-

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Sweat-T-Shirts Accessories Shirt Waist Sweaters Jackets City Skirts Dresses Trousers

87,654 67,543 67,543 44,658 41,976 41,976 22,356 16,834 123.547

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121,432 Sweat-T-Shirts Accessories Shirt Waist Sweaters Jackets City Skirts Dresses Trousers

87,654 67,543 67,543 44,658 41,976 41,976 22,356 16,834 123.547

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123,547 121,432 87,654 67,543

41,976 34,546 22,356 16,834 56,765 44,658

×

* 122,231" * 125,342" *175,342" *144,443" * 103,442" *187,287" *184,724" *129,934" *186,235" *177,556" more… SKU number

ment tools we have today don’t help us with all those iterations because they don’t provide enough separation between the business logic and the UI. Ideally, we should be able to change the UI from top to bottom and revisit absolutely every last bit of it without ever touching the underlying logic. Unfortunately, today that just isn’t the case.

GosPeR: That’s why, as a UX interaction designer, you have to be prepared to demonstrate to the product developers that any changes you’re recommending are based on substantive evidence, not just some intuitive or anecdotal sense of the users’ needs. You need to make a strong case and be able to support design changes with as