Integrating usability evaluations into Scrum: A case study based on remote synchronous user testing

The tendency to empower users in the software development process encourages the continuing search for ways to reconcile the interests of agile methodologies and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) activities. The practice of agile methods, e.g. Scrum, is normally focused on high productivity, sometimes leaving aside other important aspects of software development such as usability. On the other hand, HCI methods usually attempt to reach solid conclusions through extensive and formal studies, which can consume significant resources and time. In this paper we present an instrumental single case study which offers an example of how usability evaluations can be integrated into a Scrum project by using Remote Synchronous User Testing (RS). Our approach suggests that the RS process should be conducted by the same developers who integrate the developing team. Our results indicate that RS can be used as a strategy to efficiently and easily integrate usability evaluations into Scrum projects. The most valuable benefit obtained in this integration is related to the opportune feedback offered by usability testing, which can be incorporated to the developing process immediately as is provided through agile principles. Other elements of our approach could help solve other problems normally present in other efforts made in order to integrate usability evaluations into agile methods. The major problem in our case study was related to the difficulty presented by software developers in terms of changing their usual focus when they have to conduct usability evaluations.