**5.1 Leadership, management, and communication**

In a context where we are in an academic research lab doing applied research with industrial clients, those last ones are not always educated about the possibilities and limitations of UX testing that can be carried out. It is, therefore, important for the main research team to educate and guide clients when it comes to defining the research question and experimental design. First-time projects with new clients inevitably require additional time and effort in the preparatory phase. Bearing this in mind, the research team must, therefore, develop an educational strategy to facilitate this phase.

## **5.2 Statement of work**

With the same objective of facilitating communication and building a common project, the establishment of a statement of work (SOW) can be considered. It may not always be possible to fulfill every desire of the client in a laboratory setting. It is, therefore, important to set ground rules that clearly distinguish which aspects of the project are flexible from those that are less adaptable, in order to limit subsequent frustrations on both sides of the stakeholders.

## **5.3 Training of research assistants**

Finally, it is also important to consider the academic setting in which the lab team operates. Consequently, research assistants are students so that we must continually trained and mentored. This creates an extra level of preparation. UX tests require, *a priori*, rigorous preparation. Since research assistants are very involved in collecting and codifying the collected data, they must be able to understand everything that these UX tests imply.

and that better align it with the real user's needs. The tests could be made on specific features, as well as on a complete product aiming to quickly eliminate erroneous assumptions. According to what is tested, different tools are available and various approaches can be deployed. It is then that the UX designer's expertise becomes important to identify which tools and approaches will help to obtain the desired

*Towards Agility and Speed in Enriched UX Evaluation Projects*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89762*

However, as easy it may seem at first glance, the variables to be considered are numerous and deeply exposed in this article—the nature of the research, the nature of the elements (human and technical), the nature of the results, and the time constrains. Several answers about how the research team has been able to improve their effectiveness can be found in the article. Nonetheless, adding to these variables, it is also important to consider the prevalent mentality in certain industries, and very well anchored in conservative industries—such as banks, insurance, governments, etc.—that often do not want to test concepts or ideas—based on a fear of industrial espionage or reputation issues—and wait until they develop a full and finished product. Within these specific industries, an educational phase will be the first step to implement innovative approaches that aim towards agility and speed in

answers.

enriches UX evaluation projects.

**Author details**

Juliana Alvarez<sup>1</sup>

**101**

and Marc Frédette<sup>2</sup>

1 Montreal, Canada

2 Tech3lab, HEC Montréal, Canada

provided the original work is properly cited.

\*, David Brieugne<sup>2</sup>

\*Address all correspondence to: juliana.alvarez.dehaut@gmail.com

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

, Pierre-Majorique Léger<sup>2</sup>

, Sylvain Sénécal<sup>2</sup>

Hence, an examination of the different case studies of *Sprint projects* has allowed us to highlight several strategies and lessons learned in the hybridization of an agile/ UX approach. Notwithstanding, far from being a definitive methodological proposal that meets all the requirements of an efficient approach, the co-authors especially wanted to shed light on interesting lines of thought. The objective of such research is to find an approach that maintains and makes the iron triangle of project management more sustainable, i.e., reducing the time and operational costs while maintaining the quality and scope required by the client. Research is, therefore, continuing in this direction not only in improving the operationalization of such methods but also to make progress in the efforts to systematize the codification, analysis, and visualization of enriched UX measurements.

Since it is a new way of thinking Agile and UX methodologies, it is difficult to find different organizations that implement this methodology, explaining why all case studies are principally conducted within the same laboratory. Even though it helps to test and improve the methodology, it is also considered as a limitation. Since there are clear benefits for industrial practice in this area of research, studying other organizations that implement a similar or different methodology—merging Agile and UX approaches—would be beneficial for in depth and future research.

On the one hand, the classic UX research model that generally prioritizes the perceptual facet of UX (focus group, interview, questionnaire, and observation) is enriched by psychophysiological UX measures. On the other hand, given the costs involved in purchasing the devices, their deployment, and the training required for the application of psychophysiological-enriched UX measures, the co-authors sees a great opportunity for complementarity and transfer of knowledge between industry and academia, principally because it allows the industry to take advantage of the academic environment and research context, in order to explore the best avenues for an agile/UX development approach.

## **6. Conclusion**

In conclusion, to the initial question as to whether enriched UX measures can be performed quickly enough to be included in an agile development, the answer is, therefore, yes. To create a UX project that follows the agile development guidelines, the key to success is to be able to steer its approach on numerous small incremental phases oriented on the users. The working sets as defined in the agile development oriented in functionalities should, as far as possible, be aligned with the users' needs and be tested by them early in the process, and later on during all the development phases, to insure that the final product is integrated harmoniously into the user's life and is adapted to his or her needs.

Furthermore, as proved by the case studies, significant findings could be made from testing the concepts and prototypes on participants. Therefore, it is important not to wait to have a finished and polished product before involving the user and having his or her perspective. With as few as a dozen participants and with a timeline of 2 weeks, it is possible to obtain quick insights that redirect the project
