Usability in agile development

Abstract

Interest in the integration of the agile software development process (ASDP) and user-centred design (UCD) has grown over the last decade. However, there are not many papers that study this issue holistically and uncover the current state of this integration. Aim: This study sets out to answer the following research question: What is the current state of integration between agile processes and usability? Method: We conduct a systematic mapping study (SMS). A SMS is a form of systematic literature review that aims to identify and classify the research papers published about a specified issue. Results: We retrieved a total of 161 primary studies, which we categorized according to four criteria: process, practice, team and technology integration. The largest group refers to process integration with a total of 76 primary studies. Judging by the increase in the number of publications over the last decade, the integration of human-computer interaction (HCI) activities and techniques into the ASDP is an issue of notable interest. Conclusions: There are very few papers that study the literature holistically and report the current state of usability in the ASDP. Additionally, there are no formalized proposals for adopting usability techniques