Blended program management, Prince and Agile methods Part 1
I have been involved in project and program management since 1989 across various sectors and more recently have been focused in banking and finance. I have experience in Prince and Agile methodologies and will expand on the blending of these two methods through the use of user stories (a user experience method) and the positive relationship between waterfall and iteration components in the following parts of this post.
Simply put (before getting into the detail) Prince and Agile = Delivery and in Banking and Finance they can give startling results.
This will not be a shock to many people but I'm not going to be describing the what, but the how. I have managed some highly complex projects that would have failed if they had been run in Prince or Agile alone. The clear advantage of blended processes is that the project become team centric and affords an environment where success in common and that value is attributed to the correct people.
Holistic user experience (ux), Customers (users) don’t think or interact along channel lines
Business management does not reflect customer (users) activity
The management of a businesses online presence is broken up into various channels in order to simplify the management, responsibility and accountability for overall effectiveness and value. However customers (users) are unaware of these business rules and are only focused on their task or tasks, which will cut across several channels.
Holistic customer (user) experience is cross channel
Given the behaviour of customers (users) it is clear that effectual user experience is cross channel as well. This creates some problems for business, however with the advent of Agile, user stories it may be time for businesses to at last really focus on their customers (users) by changing their online management to reflect key user pathways rather than holding on to legacy notions of management.
Customer experience an example (not everything)
1. Engagement > 2. On boarding > 3. Payments > 4. Servicing > 5. Supporting > 6. Retention > 7. Up/Cross Selling
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Engagement - how the customer finds out about the company, where their expectations are set (also includes brand identification) and they self filter based upon personal tasks and ojectives
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On boarding - agreement that the company provides the service required, through written and visual material, social media, personal reccomendations, reviews, sign up routes
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Payments - payment or funding pathways related to e-commerce, m-commerce (including micro payments)
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Servicing - providing the goods or services, delivery and tracking
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Supporting - providing help and support both online and telephony (can complete servicing)
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Retention - managing potential loss of customers, analytics, advanced planning
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Up/Cross selling - data mining existing customers to up or cross sell other products and services to existing customers
For a customer this process can take hours, days, weeks, months or years and contains three key user experiences;
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A transaction (engagement, on boarding, payment, servicing, support)
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Customer relationship management (on boarding, payment, servicing, support, retention)
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Marketing (engagement, on boarding, retention, up/cross selling)
These experiences cross relate as can be seen by their components.
Managing the web in a holistic manner reduces risk and lowers cost
The problem remains at present that the customers (users) experience is supported by multiple sub-systems with owners and their own agendas. This costs a huge amount of time and money and creates a great deal of risk that valuable customer activity will become secondary to internal politics.
There needs to be an importance given to the customers overall experience and the need to join it up in terms of user experience, visual appearance and standard interactions across multiple platforms and systems.
Related
- Information Architecture (IA) the classification of information
- Information Architecture (IA) the classification of information Part 2 - Educational publishing and courses examples
- Definition of User Experience
- User Experience as a process
- Getting UX done the engagement process
- Getting into User Experience Part 1
- Getting into User Experience Part 2
User Experience (UX) Roles vs Information Architect Roles (IA)
This is just a quick post showing the basic level differences between User Experience (UX) Roles and Information Architect (IA) Roles. I'm working on a full model post as well, but that is still being written.
User Experience (UX) Roles.
User Experience (UX) Roles Diagram
User Experience Architect (UX Architect)
Gathers requirements, defines the system features (functional specification) , user journeys, personas, interactions, sitemaps, wireframes, data models, conducts research, writes testing protocols and conducts testing.
Interaction Designer (IxD/UX Designer)
Defines interactions, sitemaps, wireframes, based on requirements from the more senior UX Architect.
User Experience Researcher (UX Researcher)
Conducts research for the User Experience Architect (UX Architect), Interaction Designer (IxD/UX Designer) or for a User Interface Developer (to apply common patterns).
Usability Tester
Works with User Experience Architect (UX Architect) or Interaction Designer (IxD/UX Designer) to define the testing formats that are conducted during research, design and development project phases.
Accessibility Tester
Works with User Experience Architect or Interaction Designer (IxD/UX Designer) to define the testing formats that are conducted during research, design and development project phases.
User Experience Tester
Conducts user acceptance testing for the experience in line with the personas and user journeys.
User Interface Developer (UI Developer)
Interprets the functional specification, sitemaps, wireframes with the aid of the User Experience Architect (UX) Architect and Interaction Designer (IxD/UX Designer) to avoid losing key featured defined for the specific audience. This is a negotiated process where the UI Developer is able to express their deep knowledge of the front end code capabilities and can be an area of conflict if the UX practitioner does not respect their capability and fully explain the reasons for the design elements.
Information Architect (IA) Roles
Information Architecture (IA) Roles Diagram
Information Architect
Gathers requirements, defines the system information features (information specification) , conducts content audits, information research, data architecture, writes tone of voice, defines taxonomy, content strategy, word based marketing strategy and content object model.
Content Auditor / Researcher
Conducts information audit of existing system (if one is there) and research into area specific language.
Taxonomist
Defines the taxonomy for the system based upon the Content Audit and Research.
Content Strategist
Writes the content strategy based upon the Content Audit and Research.
SEO, SEM, PPC Strategist
Defines the keyword structures based upon the Content Audit + Research, keyword logging and meta standards.
Content Object Modeller
Writes the content object model based upon the Content Audit + Research, Content Strategist and SEO, SEM, PPC Strategist.
Content Author / Developer
Delivers content that fills the content object model and is in line with tone of voice.
Related
- Information Architecture (IA) the classification of information
- Information Architecture (IA) the classification of information Part 2 - Educational publishing and courses examples
User experience as a process
Process thinking in user experience
The first step in user experience needs to be the recognition that every problem is different and will require a separate solution. Because if they are not, then every business is the same which they are clearly not.
In effect there is no quick fix or standard method but rather there is an armoury of methods each with associated risks, limitations and plus points. Anyone offering a standardise method without flexibility should be ask to leave as they about to cost you a fortune.
Offering user experience services is a bit like dungeons and dragons in that you role your 12 sided dice and hope the business does not throw some trolls at you.
I have worked with very well known agencies who are unable to get their clients to understand the importance of user experience - research, testing and design as they focus on the design component without proper understanding that it is only one part of a three stage process. The reason that clients give for not paying for research and testing is the assumption that user experience people a such great experts that they can do their job in total isolation from the business and the end users. Maybe 'Super User Experience Person' does exist but I doubt it, more importantly users change.
Some process steps for user experience
This process list is based on personal experience and is open to reduction or extension based upon just how savvy the client is and how must they really want to be successful rather than just being seen to be doing something.
1. Understand the problem
2. Do research
3. Analyse research
4. Get validation
5. Compose concepts
6. Create buy-in
7. Define the audience (actors)
8. Create personas
8.1 Research
9. Define critical tasks
9.1 Research
10. Define key pathways
10.1 Main pathway
10.2 Alternative pathways
10.3 Failure pathways
11. Set the tone of voice
11.1 Type of language
11.2 Level of formality
11.3 Use of jargon, brand identity or subject specific words
11.4 Content style
11.4.1 Meta standards
11.4.2 Content object model
11.5 SEO if web based
12: Wireframes
12.1 Selection of type & method
12.1 Wireframe Concepts
12.1.1 User testing
12.2 Wireframe sketches
- Client sign off
12.3 Wireframe prototypes
12.3.1 User testing
- Client review
12.4 Wireframe & Visual design integration
13. Functional specification & analytics specification
- Pass to development
14. Usability Test plan
15. Accessibility Test plan
16. Functional & Content Test plan
17. Testing handover with participant screening document
18. Review testing results
19. Modify labels, interactions & structure in line with findings
20. Done, until .....
21. Check interactions based upon analytics and more user testing.
22. Offer enhancements to clients.
Definition of User Experience (UX)
User experience (UX) is about how a person feels, appropriates, attributes and the emotions engendered when thinking about using a product, system or service.
User experience highlights the experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human interaction and ownership. It also includes a person’s perceptions (driven from a subject expert/specific experience, people know their life and experience intimately) of the practical aspects such as utility, ease of use and efficiency of the system.
User experience is both subjective and dynamic.
Subjective - Personal drivers can and often do outweigh practical considerations as users will walk through fire to get what they want from technology. However by the same turn poor or bad technology causes end users to find alternative routes to completing their tasks, objectives and the acquisition of whatever they require.
Dynamic - As users gain experience over time their expectations of use (and more stringently of technology) and the way they assess their experience becomes more critical, as they develop the expectation that technology is there to help them. In the same way user experience needs to evolve and encompass measurement (analytics, KPI's), visual design (colour contrast, colour relationships, visual structures, implied values), brand identity (notions of value, success, capability), usability (standards, behaviours, ownership), accessibility (platforms, entry, usage).
Perhaps we should start again and say user experience is not, the problem is that 'user experience' as an expression no longer encompasses what we do, but talks lightly to what we used to do. I have heard the term experience managers and others (you know who you are) the thing is 'Experience' is not yet formed, understood and certainly not fully accepted for what it really is. Experience can be defined as a framework of recognisable and interlinked elements that are responsive to our individual drivers (reason to interact), bio graphical templates (our past inputs and results) and expected outcome (based upon the pathway elements; title, content, visuals, search) this can all be planned, designed and built.
In my opinion, I stand apart, User Experience Architect, I speak for the users, the consumers, the target market and say 'Listen or well go elsewhere', because we can and will seek our own needs before your business or purpose. It does not matter if it's a person to person service, software or the web we can still make our own lives better with a work around and you will not know because we can still do our jobs or live our lives.
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