Extreme Product Line Engineering: Managing Variability & Traceability via Executable Specifications Chair: Tore Dybå Featured Participants: Yaser Ghanam, Frank Maurer

Building General Knowledge in Agile Software Organizations: Experiences with job rotation in customer support Chair: Tore Dybå Featured Participants: Tor E. Faegri

The XP Customer Team: A Grounded Theory Chair: Tore Dybå Featured Participants: Angela Martin, Robert Biddle, James Noble

Mitigating Team Politics in Agile Usability: A Mapping Approach Chair: Yael Dubinsky Featured Participants: Jeremy T Barksdale, Eric D Ragan, D. Scott McCrickard

Supporting Program Comprehension in Agile with Links to User Stories Chair: Yael Dubinsky Featured Participants: Sukanya Ratanotayanon, Susan Sim, Rosalva Gallardo-Valencia

XP Customer Practices: A Grounded Theory Chair: Tore Dybå Featured Participants: Angela Martin, Robert Biddle, James Noble

User Experience (UX) practitioners and agile practitioners need to understand how user-centred design (UCD) and its techniques can be applied in an agile context. We studied the role of UX practitioners on agile projects, as perceived by UX practitioners themselves. Interviewing 10 UX practitioners in a variety of settings, we identified two main themes that they perceive to be highly influential in the success of integrating UCD and agile approaches: UX practitioners’ understanding of their job role, and the need to establish, protect and communicate an overall team vision.

The increasing use of agile methods to develop UI-intensive systems has led to a need to find ways of integrating usability into agile teams—reconciling the convergence and divergent points between the two areas. Agile usability researchers at Virginia Tech have partnered with Meridium to develop and implement an integrated approach known as eXtreme Scenario-based Design (XSBD). Based on an analysis of core values and principles of both areas, and work from other agile usability researchers we identified four requirements that need to be met for an integrated approach to work effectively.