The Art of Agile Development, 2nd Edition

Real Customer Involvement

AUDIENCE

Customers

We understand the goals and frustrations of our customers and users.

I once worked with a team that was building software to analyze mass spectrometer data. The team’s domain expert was a chemist whose previous job involved using the company’s old software. She was invaluable, full of insight about what did and didn’t work with the old product. We were lucky to have her as a member of the team. Thanks to her, we created a more valuable product.

In an Agile team, on-site customers—team members with the skill to represent customer, user, and business interests—are responsible for choosing and prioritizing stories. The value of the team’s work is in their hands. This is a big responsibility. As an on-site customer, how do you know what to choose?

Some of that knowledge comes from your background and expertise. But you can’t think of everything. You can get so caught up in daily details that you lose track of your real customers’ interests.

To widen your perspective, you need to involve real customers and users. The best approach to doing so depends on who you’re building the software for.

FEEDBACK AND ITERATION

Agile’s emphasis on feedback is one of the biggest reasons for its success.

It’s incredibly difficult to predict how software will be received. It’s even difficult to imagine how it will work in practice. As a result, teams often find that their first release of their software has unexpected flaws. Not bugs, exactly, but misunderstandings ...