How to involve UX Designer in SCRUM Master’s process?

Scrum is not always an easy challenge for UX developers. Designers don’t always understand the nuances in the scrum process, and regular sprints and a very clustered working model can give them migraines. UX often has to prove its worth in order to fulfill its role more effectively, which should not be the case, for the sake of the team and the product. What to keep in mind when scumming with design?

Scrum is a process of leading a team in a strictly defined framework and assumptions. It is usually combined with agile working methodologies, called Agile, although this is not the same thing, which is often confused. Scrum is a framework-based tool to drive effective incremental product development through calculated and sophisticated actions based on prioritization of goals. It is also about empathetic engagement of team members and recognizes its role as an empirical researcher of team and product needs. Development of deliverables is divided into at most monthly iterations, called sprints.

However, they usually last two weeks. Scrum Master is as JustJoin writes.It is a prophet of change, who not only leads the team, but also teaches it to learn new paths of work, identify strengths and weaknesses. It is also the role of the SM to get to know the specific work of each member and individually help them to grow. Scrum is first and foremost an empirical analyst who disciplines the team and collects data about them to better plan sprints and communicate with the Product Owner.

Problems with UX in a scrum team

Scrum Master and his team should be transparent, verifiable and implementable. These are also characteristics that correspond to the designers, and when we add to this the fact that both groups are based on experience, we see a certain affinity. However, as mohi rightly points out.that’s where it ends. This is because Designers face tight time windows, at a time when most are used to their own process of research, design, testing and implementation. Moreover, the work of the designers is based on providing ready-made solutions, and sprints are characterized by the growth of the product, and not always by its end, which is, as the name suggests, at the end of the process. This is a big mental and organizational hurdle for UX people.

User experience design, like the scrum team, collect feedback. However, the feedback defined in the working methodology determines the actions of the team, only to itself and the development of the product, while the UX confronts with users, which can produce much more unpredictable results than ceremonies in scrum.

It turns out that humans are unpredictable creatures, and even experienced UX people may have trouble defining full product specifications in advance. It is a very good idea to have a good team that is willing to work with you to make sure you get the best out of your project. Hence the need to think about ux research and testing of finished solutions on an ongoing basis, which can be a point of contention in teams.

What to keep in mind when implementing Design in Scrum teams?

While watching Drive with IT material with Wojciech Rusnak we could hear a sentence in which UX Designer had to prove his worth in front of the team. It seems to be a natural consequence among people who work in a given system and suddenly they are expected to cooperate with an individual whose role they cannot fully comprehend. After all, developers have the most knowledge about their product. Although nobody has any objections to the last sentence, the UX character in the team is invaluable if we want the product to be useful and neat. Proving one’s worth cannot therefore be done at the expense of time, product or various interpersonal tensions.

This is where the masters should clarify the exact role and importance of the UX department in the team, but for this to happen the UX itself must feel confident. Many designers don’t feel this way, because they may not know exactly what scrum is, and even if they do, they may fear that they won’t have enough time for research and testing, which will make their work much harder. To avoid this situation, we need to familiarize each team member with the terminology we use and the work time and tasks that will be performed there. Research and UX tests should have a separate place in the backlog, which should also mean foreseeing time for these activities.

Scrum experts recommend that design should be completed before development, and sketches should be completed before research. There may be times when a project can be finished, at the beginning of writing code. And here comes the task to integrate developers with the idea of experience design, so that they are aware of what ux is and why they need it.

Many experts also stress the fact of reducing documentation in favor of smoother communication in the team. – Prototypes, graphics, descriptions should be created only if they create a foundation for further work, i.e. user flow, customer journey maps, anything that helps us get closer to the Sprint goal – we read in mohi.to. Website rst.software also reminds about the important point of educating UX team about what they design. They should be aware, not only of the scrum itself and the team, but also of the product, its business goals and requirements.

How to combine UX with scrum?

Designers are responsible for a number of design, research, implementation and communication activities. The entire user-centered process requires an appropriate methodology and approach to the problem. A series of tests to check if the research and mock-ups were not in vain and if there is something that can be improved during such evaluation. If a company is not mature in terms of user experience activities, it may have serious problems with adaptation. Before recruiting UX to the project, scrum should define what is the purpose of such implementation.

For UX to function in its full glory, they should have time and space for research and analysis. Many entities are strictly convinced that they have the best knowledge of how the product should look like and what the market expects from it, often going into delivering an unnecessary or poorly designed solution, which later requires many more resources to fix such a process. In Agile, research should precede the developers’ activities, and only then can we estimate what we might face along the way. Appropriately prepared research should be entered into the backlog, so that everyone has access to the conclusions.

For clarity of scrum activities research can be divided into smaller user stories. It is also important that research does not have to be finished in order to sketch the first mockups. Usually they are basic anyway, and are developed when further experience is gained. In this way, developers can already prepare to write code. Design should support the job story that is expected in the current sprint. It’s worth getting familiar with design systems to speed up the work of UX, UI and developers. Particularly important in creating an application is to check if it fulfills its role and how it is perceived by users, which is rarely anticipated by teams at the development stage. Very often it may turn out that the product has to be improved, and the project is finished.

Here the need to plan satisfaction survey activities so that the UX team has knowledge about the final product and can share it with the team so that they create better products in the future. There are many technical ways to implement ux in scrum. There are ready recipes on the web for merging these areas, so let’s do it!