UX processes and Agile processes are very different. Agile principle #4, “Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.” The Agile manifesto makes it clear that developers are expected to work directly with product owners/customers to design and develop the product. No mention of user/design research with end users.
When teams put in the work to integrate the two, UX can thrive. When they don’t, UX suffers greatly.
Over the past 11 years, I’ve experienced:
teams that recited Agile principles as weapons against UX, and
teams that did the hard work of thoughtfully integrating UX into their process
Out-of-the-box, Agile doesn’t encourage/make room for UX discovery and design activities. However, there are some Agile concepts that are great for UX, such as user stories and iterative development, which organizations *can* shift from developer activities to UX activities, where:
user stories are based on UX research versus assumptions about users, and
iterative development can be pre-deployment prototype testing versus post-deployment code re-work.
When UXers are interviewing for Agile teams, here are some questions to ask to find out if and how they have integrated UX into their Agile process:
To whom does UX report and how are UX + Agile processes integrated?
Does UX report to a UX lead, Agile lead, Product Owner...? Each of these team structures has pros and cons. You want to learn what is working well and how they have overcome any challenges.Can you give examples of how leadership ensures UX is prioritized?
You want to know how they support UX work, if they include UX from the beginning, if the Product Owner (and others) understand and value UX's role, and if they assign points each sprint to addressing UX debt.Can you provide details about UX's role in each Agile ceremony?
You'll want to know that UX is part of all ceremonies, how others on the team and UX collaborate, and how UX contributes to planning and final design decisions.How is UX research and design incorporated into your Agile process?
You want to know if they actually make time for UX work and if UX has sufficient lead time ahead of the development team.How are user stories and acceptance criteria determined?
You want to know who creates them, if UX works closely with the Product Owner (and maybe others) to create them. User stories should be based on business and evidence-based user needs. Acceptance criteria should be detailed with emphasis on UX.Are UX reviews part of the "definition of done?" If so, can you elaborate?
You want to know that all user-facing functionality is reviewed by UX before the user story is closed. This should happen early in the sprint so developers can address important UX issues. If issues are written in a new user story, consider their answer to the 2nd question.
Let me know if this was helpful.