Improving UX Through Application Life Cycle Management (ALM)

Christian Thilmany User Experience ArchitectMicrosoft Corporationwww.flyover18.com

Chris BernardUser Experience EvangelistMicrosoft Corporationwww.designthinkingdigest.com

“The future is already here—it’s just

unevenly distributed.”

William Gibson

Making hard things easier

Picking the right approaches

Understanding how we’re different

Learn how to not ignore dysfunction

Push our teams in the right direction

What to do when we get stuck

A quick history of User Experience Workflow

Today

Poor design can shortchange outcomesDesign is more than this

Design Workflow Starts Early

Today

Source: Charles and Ray Eames

Design workflow has a history

Source: Gregg Berryman

And many processes we're familiar with

Source: Gregg Berryman

But are based on different mediums

Source: Gregg Berryman

We've adapted these processes

Source: Gregg Berryman

To serve us better

Source: Gregg Berryman

And tried to make them agile and simple

Source: Chris Bernard

Source: Chris Bernard

Source: Institute of Design

Source: Hasso Plattner Institute of Design

But design planning starts even sooner

Source: International Design Magazine

And the way we're working is changing

Source: Chris Bernard

Old processes are well understood

Perhaps universally understood

Source: Jesse James Garrett

Trouble is here

We can do better

Designer and Developer Worklow using TFS

demo

“We need lightweight, agile design processes”

“Prototyping is not rapid nor integrated”

“Our (distributed) teams are not communicating effectively”

“We don’t have good visibility into project status”

“Requirements are not sufficiently defined or tracked”

The UX Process Problem

What is Everyone Doing?Strategy

Requirements IxD / IA

UI Design

Visual Design Build Out

Planning Cycle Cycle Cycle Cycle Maintenance

Design TeamDevelopment Team

One to Four Weeks

Requirements

Design

Development

Testing

Release

Preparation

visibility

"Process Glue"

Use the Tool you Know

Process TemplatesProject process blueprintPackage of tool settings and templates

Process Template Define …Work Items TypesFormsQueriesReportsWorkflowDocumentation

Modify ours, handcraft your own, or download

What are Process Templates?

What Processes are Available?

Two included with Team Foundation Server

MSF for Agile Software DevelopmentMSF for CMMI® Process Improvement

3rd Party templates available:Conchango SCRUMEssential Unified Process And many more …

Take an existing Process Template and make it your own

announcing

Choose process during team project creation

UX Process Template

What can be customized?

Work itemsWork Item TypesWorkflowQueries

Project SiteProcess guidanceSite Template

ReportsSecurityAreas/IterationsCheck-in policies

Quality•Bug•Exit criteria•Usability Issue

Work•Task•Backlog Item•Wireframe Task•Release Note•IA Task

Planning•Scenario•Use Case•Design Requirement•Content Requirement•Business Requirement•Interaction Design Idea

Project management•Issue•Change request•Risk •Design Risk

Black = MSF work item typeWhite = new work item type

Sample "Work Items"

UX Process Guidance

Atomic Check-inWork Item IntegrationCheck-in PoliciesShelvingDelta File Storage

Delta Binary File StorageLarge File Support (>4GB)Distributed Team Support

Yes No

Binaries Need Love Too!

Quality Indicator

Scope Creep

Project Velocity

Remaining Work

Requirements Tracking

Item Reactivation

Schedule

Item Burndown

Designer (Business) Intelligence

• Instant Messenger• Improved Agile

Process• Additional Roles• “Dashboarding”• What if analysis• Simple Report

Creation• Nested Work Items

2006 2007

2008

“Rosario”

20102005 2008

2008 SP1

2005

Roadmap

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The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after

the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.